The Black Quartet
by Zoram Selrof
Summary: Sequel to the Ruling Key. Subaru and his allies continue their campaign against their usual enemies, who are getting more dangerous by the passing day, with new tactics that seek to exploit their frustations. As a result, tensions amongst the allies are increasing as well. Will they be able to put an end once and for all to this conflict? Rated M for lemon.
1. Chapter 1: Of romances

**The Black Quartet**

 **By Zoram Selrof**

 **Chapter 1: Of romances**

11:05 AM (Japan Time), Wednesday March the 2nd, 2207...

"... Ahem, ahem! Subaru – kun! We need to TALK!"

"What now, _iinchou_?"

"It's very important!"

"Another soap opera?"

"NO!"

"Deny all you want, _iinchou_. It doesn't change the facts."

"Like I care!"

"Oh boy…"

Hoshikawa Subaru (aged 14) was sitting behind his desk on the middle school's classroom and going over a textbook when Shirogane Luna (about the same age as him) showed up in front of the desk and placed both hands atop it while leaning forward: she looked annoyed and flustered while Subaru rolled his eyes and sighed: he was too used to scenes like this one.

"You! Are you going to make the smartest choice ever?"

"And what would that be? Marriage?"

"Exactly!"

"I wouldn't be so sure about that."

"HUH? KI~H! THE KITTY IS CONTROLLING YOU~!" She got annoyed.

"Misora – chan isn't controlling me and it's not like I've decided to marry her either." He sighed.

"Huh? Then WHO are you going to marry?"

"Aren't we too young to discuss this, anyway? We're still about 5 years ago from legal age. Many things can happen in the meanwhile."

"Ahem, ahem. Shirogane – san."

"Yikes! The homeroom teacher!"

The homeroom teacher came in and she didn't look too pleased with the situation: Luna gulped and began to nervously sweat while Subaru sighed and stood up.

"I'm going to the yard. Need some fresh air."

"Running away, Mr. Hero?" She hissed.

"I'm talking to you! Young girl!" The homeroom teacher called out.

"Ah! Y-yes, ma'am!"

Subaru ignored her taunt and left the classroom: he went down the stairs and got out into the yard: he scanned the area and found Ushijima Gonta scratching his head while reading something on his Hunter-VG's holographic screen: Saishouin Kizamaro was discussing something with his Wizard Pedia.

"Hey. Subaru – kun. Did you finishing going over the lesson?"

"Not really, Tsukasa – kun. _Iinchou_ got in the way with her soap operas."

"Again? Oh boy."

"She doesn't learn the lesson!"

"Sure, Gino – kun."

Futaba Tsukasa walked over to him followed by another student.

This student was about the same age and height as Tsukasa and Subaru: he had brownish hair and blue eye irises.

"Hmm? Mail… "Excellent customer of the Big Wave, Kiboyama Gino – sama. We are glad to announce to you that you will be rewarded with a Crown of Vanity for your exploits. Yours sincerely, Lord Nangoku."… Nangoku san got "inspired" again or WHAT?" Kiboyama read aloud the email he received.

"Sounds like a parody Sigma – san would come up with. Or Omega – san's "joker mode"…" Subaru muttered.

"Guess it's either of them, yeah." Tsukasa agreed.

"Oi, Subaru! Trouble!" Gonta rushed up to them.

"What's up, Gonta?"

"This email, man! "The Meat Strikes Back: Coming Soon!"… It's a curse! It's gotta be the sirloin steak's revenge, man!" He explained in a rush.

"Oh come on. It's some prank, man. Don't take things so literally."

"Sheesh." Jack walked up to them and he was annoyed.

"Did you get one too, Jack?" Subaru guessed.

"Sure! "The jack of all trades will jack a jackin' jackal!"… What a lame attempt at a tongue-twister." He grumbled.

"This is OUTRAGEOUS! OUTRAGEOUS!" Kizamaro was complaining to Pedia next.

"And what do you want me to do about it?" Pedia sighed.

"B-B-B-B-Bertie~! King Edward VII sends his greetings from beyond the Grand Puddle!" A voice rang out from Subaru's Hunter-VG.

"I knew it. Omega – san. It had to be you, sir."

"So! The triangle booked Room Triangle tonight?"

"And what if?" Subaru, Tsukasa and Kiboyama fumed.

"Hum! Good question! By Blake's blood!"

"Blake's blood? What's that, a new nickname for Blood Shadow?" Tsukasa frowned.

"Retro _connoisseur_ knowledge, my dear Smith."

"Smith? My surname is Futaba! And you know it! Sir!"

"Your knowledge is SO retro that nobody can figure out where you dig it from." Kiboyama fumed.

"That's why I do that! Because it makes me feel like an erudite! Maybe like Albus Dumbledore?"

"Something tells me that character is WAY wiser than you. Sir."

"Hum, hum! Detective Roger on the scene! Bring out the Luminol, this reeks of wiped out blood!"

"I give up."

"No wonder." Jack wasn't surprised.

"Anyone would." Kizamaro admitted.

"Oi, Omega! Ya jerk! Don't scare me like that again!" Gonta complained.

"Ah, but didn't you say that Ox was the ghost of pork you'd eaten the previous evening? Y'know, back when you two met."

"W-well, I did say that but…"

"By the way! Kizamaro! Did you find Snow-White in the forest along with your brothers-in-law?"

"Snow-White? Brothers-in-law? I fail to see the point. Sir." He calmly adjusted his glasses.

"But didn't you say that Law 15 of Kizamaro's Master Laws allowed you to find any supernatural specter?"

"HUH? I never said that! Right, Pedia?"

"Indeed. I have no such record of that. It's true that he's made up all of his "laws" but I don't recall such a one." Pedia objected.

"Oi, Omega! Stop messing around! What about Hyde? Are you keeping an eye on the rascal or not?" Jack grumbled.

"Akatsuki is in charge of that today. Got free time, man. Beware of the doggy idol chasin' U around."

"Hmpf. Worthless. Well then, what about K&K?" Jack wasn't impressed in the least.

"Tabby – chan is in charge!"

"Oh come on. Stop calling the guy like that, he doesn't deserve such humiliation!"

"Oh? So you've become buddies without me knowing it? My, my. Tabby – chan's as sneaky as ever."

"Oi! Don't make up stuff out of the blue! We're not buddies! I'm simply saying that your nickname is shameful!"

"The Duke of Shamefulness inspired me!"

"I'm sure you've made the guy up here and now."

"O-ME-GA~!" Someone roared at the other end of the line.

"Oops. _Shachou_! Did Izono forget to bring the deluxe _bento_?"

"I don't know who Izono is or was and I don't care! Do something useful! Check out that there's nothing odd at the Black Hole Server!" The man ordered.

"OK! I'll bring ya a patch of ground as souvenir. Tax-free, of course."

"Like I care! Move your ass! NOW!"

"Sure. Well then, Bertie… Let's meet again! _Ciao, caro mio_!"

The call finally ended and Subaru sighed: he then saw that the clock read "11:24 AM" so he grumbled.

"Heck. This ate up almost the whole break time. I better eat the sandwich fast."

"And here we were thinking we were having a rather quiet time ever since the fuss a month ago… Looks like "vacations" are over." Tsukasa sighed as he stretched.

"Sure thing. Both Hyde and K&K have been quiet but I don't think they'll stay like that for much longer."

"Huff. Somethings tell me _iinchou_ will be stubborn as ever for some days in a row." Gonta foresaw.

"Obviously. Guess her parents will have to scold her. If only she wasn't so obsessed with soap operas _clichés_ … Girls!" Kizamaro sighed.

"You needn't tell me. Maybe Sis can convince her using her pressure and glare." Jack suggested.

"Maybe. But maybe it'll backfire."

The group returned to the classroom: Luna was sitting on her desk and fuming as she went over the textbook: she glanced at them as they came in and fumed yet she didn't say anything and resumed looking at the textbook.

 _The calm before the storm, huh? Let's hope we can kick some sense into her or else the stress will become unbearable… Oh boy…_

12:08 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Where did this horde come out from?"

"Easy. It's either K&K or Hyde."

"Suspected as much. Man. A horde of 66 Mettorio raging in the AMAKEN grounds…"

"Utagai – san is in the middle of a job at WAXA HQ so it's up to us to get rid of these, Sigma."

"I know, Blood."

"Fine. This is Blood Shadow. Boss, we're going to start."

"Good. Take them out one by one but don't forget to bring back a specimen for analysis. Maybe we'll figure out who sent them."

"Roger that."

Two Wizards were standing in a Wave Road within the AMAKEN grounds and looking at how a horde of Mettorio Viruses were trying to break through an energy shield surrounding the lab building.

"OK! The Mighty Sigma on the scene!"

One of them, Sigma, was about two meters tall and was colored jet black: a red spheroid could be seen set on his chest area and it seemed to be missing the armor over its mass.

His face had two red eyes and one shone brighter than the other: two horns, one of which was almost erased, were set on the sides of the head.

These added a "demonic" look to him.

Green data flows moved around his body and he held a massive black and green sword in his right hand.

"Blood Shadow, ready for action."

Blood Shadow, on the other hand, looked rather similar to Rock Man but with several design alternations to him: his main color of choice was red.

He sported black shades and a flock of messy reddish hair came out from behind the helmet given how it only covered the face and the front of the head: his ear-pads had two purple "V" letters drawn inside of them.

His armor had the purple letters "BS" engraved on the chest area while his legs were colored black and had two red stripes running down the legs' sides in a parallel manner.

His right forearm was covered by a device colored red coupled with a piece of it which was colored transparent red: a small indentation near the wrist had the same "BS" initials engraved there: and, where the hand would be, a large double-barreled shotgun emerged instead.

"Take this!"

"Eat sword!"

"Metto~!"

"Crap."

Sigma thrust his sword into a group of 6 Mettorio from behind and knocked them asides: Blood Shadow loaded his shotgun with energy and shot another group of 7 Mettorio to send them flying: both groups were deleted but their attacks got the attention of the rest of the horde which rushed towards them and began to attack from all possible angles and heights: some landed atop their bodies and began to hit them with their pickaxes: both began to try to shake them off.

"Battle Card, Tornado Dance!"

They both spun upon their axis and created a small tornado which carried away several of the Viruses and deleted them: there were some more Viruses left, though, which began to hit the Wave Road with their pickaxes to try to break it and drop them at the ground: Blood Shadow and Sigma rushed in and kicked them away: they landed some meters ahead and regrouped for another group attack: this time they formed three rows and rushed towards the duo: Blood Shadow unleashed another blast from his shotgun while Sigma hit the ground with the sword creating a shockwave: both attacks deleted several of the Viruses but there still were about 20 of them left: they jumped to a higher Wave Road and regrouped.

"Someone's improved their AIs." Blood Shadow muttered.

"Then it's K&K… Or maybe Shinobi? Something tells me the guy has no idea of programming, though." Sigma suggested.

"Maybe Phantom did it."

"Could be, too. Hyde is too stupid to do anything that requires patience and time like programming."

"Another reason to bring a sample back." Their superior muttered over their radios.

"Roger."

"Metto~!"

"Huh? What?"

All but one of the Mettorio suddenly broke down into raw data: the Mettorio glowed with a purplish "aura" and the data fused with it: it began to get bigger and bigger until it was about 5 meters tall: it roared and its road made masses of "Noise" appeared there and there: some of the nearby devices began to malfunction.

"Alright. This is clearly the work of K&K. They're more used to handling "Noise" than Phantom." Blood Shadow grumbled.

"Lovely." Sigma grumbled as well.

"GONNA SQUISH U!" The giant Mettorio suddenly yelled.

"And they inserted pre-recorded voice files to taunt us, to top it off."

"But it's still a Mettorio, man. Something tells me it's still as fragile as ever. Let's go!"

"Sure. Like that stupid thing will intimidate us."

Both jumped up to the higher Wave Road: the giant Mettorio was resuming what the horde was doing before but every time it struck the shield "Noise" masses formed and began to build up and disrupt the functioning of the shield: Sigma landed atop it and tried to plunge his sword through the helmet but it bounced off: Blood Shadow loaded an attack and shot the Virus' back but it barely made a dent: both grumbled and put some distance.

"Now what?" Sigma grumbled.

"Try drilling through it. Drill Arm!"

"OK. Drill Arm!"

"Ha~h!"

Both equipped Drill Arm Battle Cards and began to try to drill through the Mettorio's body: their drills managed to break through the outer layer and the Mettorio stopped attacking the shield to drop the pickaxe backwards: both jumped away in time to dodge the ensuing shockwave: the Mettorio jumped and turned around to face them: but, when it landed, explosions rang out beneath its feet and momentarily started it: the two Wizards used the chance to continue drilling: they then saw that there was a mass of "Crimson" acting as the core of the Mettorio and which was the source of the "Noise" masses: Blood Shadow tossed a Count Bomb inside and jumped away while Sigma did the same.

"METTO~!"

The explosion ruptured the core and the energy released pierced through multiple spots of the Mettorio's body: the "Noise" masses broke down as well while the Virus' broken body remained still yet it was leaking data from the opened wounds: it slowly began to break apart.

"Alright. Let's store this in a data cube."

"Sure."

Blood Shadow formed a white featureless cube with black edges: one of its faces opened to reveal a hollow interior: the data from the Mettorio began to flow inside and was assembled into packs which were then compressed to economize space: after some mass had gathered the cover lowered and a made click sound to indicate it'd safely locked up: the Mettorio had completely broken apart by now and there was no trace of it left anywhere: both scanned the perimeters.

"There's nothing out of place. It'd seem that's all they had in store for the time being." Blood Shadow reported.

"Hum. Just in case… Sigma! You stay there for… 15 minutes. If nothing happens, you can pull out. Blood! Bring the data here for analysis and then return to the scene to rendezvous with Sigma."

"Roger that."

"OK! Boss!"

"Hey! Guys! Did you find the Ambassador of Duckin' Ducks?" Omega's voice suddenly asked over the radio.

"No, sir. Because it doesn't exist. Sir." Both calmly objected.

"Didn't I tell you to…?"

"I already did. I only found…"

"What? Don't build up teasers."

"…a sneaky mouse."

"Who was it?"

"The Duke of Austria!"

"Hyde? Hum. Must be looking for something."

"His vanity!" Omega laughed.

"It's not funny."

"Or… Maybe he wants to use the strong Viruses that roam over the place?" Sigma suggested.

"That could be it, too. Why didn't you catch and interrogate the guy while you were at it?"

"I'd liked to but the guy dumped using that recreation of Acid Disaster that Fallen Angel of Doom left there." Omega laughed.

"You mean Acid _Ace_! Moron!"

"Oh boy." Sigma sighed.

"Nope! Acid Disaster and Moon Ace!"

"Shut up. Go patrol Okudama Studios and rendezvous with Queen Tia to know the latest status." The man ordered.

"Sure. I'll bring ya a parabola antenna as souvenir. Tax-free. _Ciao_!"

"This guy…! I need something to turn the guy serious! But no to the point he gets obsessed with pride and lashes out at everyone!"

"Y-yeah… I'll start the patrol!"

"Do so. In the meanwhile I'll report this to WAXA."

"WAX-A-Mole!"

"SHUT UP!"

12:48 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Hum. I see."

"Yeah. They're turning sneakier."

"As expected!"

"Yeah. They're toying with us."

"Despite our surveillance?"

"I guess they found a way to do things without us noticing."

Akatsuki Shidou was sitting behind his desk on the Satella Police HQ and talking with the superior of Sigma and Blood Shadow over the Hunter-VG: Acid was hovering to his right and was as expressionless as ever.

"What would that be, Vadous?"

"Doubles!"

"I see. They set up doubles that act like the real ones and since our surveillance is sound-only then we can get fooled."

"Yeah. I thought that monitoring the antennas of the behemoth would be too bold and that's the first place they'd inspect so I decided to install suction mikes on the outer shell to catch up the sounds inside of it. But I think they're noticing our tactics."

"Yeah… Our tactic of letting them loose about 3 of 4 times and one of those times be ahead of them and intercept them wherever they plan on striking… And they keep on using those annoying holes to vanish."

"Despite our continuous analyses and experiments we still can't properly find a way to intercept them while they're crossing over the dimension on the way to their destination. We've tried recreating Subaru's experiences with those during the Mu Crisis but we're lacking something. I dunno the what. Solo isn't sure either. We tried having Orihime look into it but Empty was the one who'd studied them the most and the data of his studies got lost when he was deleted." Vadous went on.

"I know! Wait a min…"

"What's up?"

"… Nothing. I got a mail from Dr. Yoiri but it's no big deal."

"If you say so…"

"By the way… I still feel somewhat unsure about her decision."

"Which decision?"

"To build an annex building to keep that robot stored there and be able to properly study it. She said that having to walk over its body was actually wearing down the armor… Despite that we found no traces of that. But when she gets stubborn… Even the Chief has reticence arguing with her. I think that there should be limits to her decision-making."

"Maybe…"

"That things looks like it'll turn on one of these days and go into a rampage."

"Highly improbable. Over 95% of its internal systems are heavily damaged or broken." Acid argued back.

"I know that! It's just that… It gives me the vibes!"

"I fail to understand why it should. We have done several experiments to try to see what happens when we try to boot it up and it shuts down in 11.34 seconds because it's unable to feed energy to all of the sections needed for movement. Only about 5% of its skin sensors work during that small space of time before safety shut-down."

"It's not easy to stand in front of a giant robot that could easily squish you like you were a mere ant!" Akatsuki grumbled.

"Shidou. You are not being rational."

"I know that! But nevertheless…! I won't be at ease until they turn it into a load of scrap! Or at lease dissemble it into pieces and send one to each WAXA Branch! This way it'll be harder for anyone to try to steal the whole thing undetected! But Dr. Yoiri says she still wants to study it more! And the Chief thinks further study of its systems and materials will be of utility to us! It's madness! MADNESS!" He roared.

"Whoa! Akatsuki! What's wrong?" A Commando asked.

"Sorry, Ryuusuke. It's just that… The tension!" He apologized.

"Can't be helped. As if those 4 weren't enough…"

"Exactly! If it were only those 4 we could handle things but that stupid trophy of war is adding more tension to things!"

"Excuse me, Shidou – chan! I can't overlook the fact that you're calling the builders of that excellent robot "stupid" when they clearly were a civilization far more advanced than ours…!"

"Crap. Dr. Yoiri…!"

Dr. Yoiri suddenly rushed in and was actually annoyed, for once. Akatsuki gulped while she headed towards his desk.

"It's marvelous! It's another great discovery!"

"Could be!"

"Why are you annoyed at me?"

"Because I think you're not being rational! Ma'am!"

"Oh dear! You're a man of action! Not of science. For us scientists there's nothing more glorifying than discovering something new and unknown that could pave the way to new technologies!"

"I know that! But that thing is placing pressure on all of us! Right, Ryuusuke?"

"Well, I wouldn't say "all" of us but… Some of us feel additional pressure that makes our job hard. No offense, ma'am, but…"

"Oh dear! But you know it can't move! Right, Acid – chan?"

"Yes, that's what I was just arguing."

"I know! But one's instincts sometimes prevail over rational thinking, ma'am! Fear of the unknown! The feeling of imminent danger!"

"Hum… When you put it that way…"

"Why don't we disassemble it into parts and send them to the other WAXA Branches? They were asking of us to do so, didn't they?"

"Yes, that's a fact. But I think it's risky."

"Risky? In what sense?"

"If we start to cut it into pieces then we might be unable to reassemble it because some internal components get damaged…"

"Like it matters! Not like it's going to start up again. Is it?"

"Hum… Well…" She looked doubtful.

"Or are you going to tell me you've got pressures from other orgs who'd like to see it in action?"

"To tell you the truth, dear… Yes. Especially the Ameroupe Air Force, the Navy and the Marines. They're all into the robot revolution as of late and they want something powerful and durable. And they've all set their eyes on this robot." She admitted.

"Lovely!"

"It's not like the Ameroupe HQ was making announcements about it but since it shares research labs with those armies then word spread amongst the researches and engineers… And it reached the ears of powerful people… Including the Pentagon."

"Huff. The Pentagon…!" Vadous grumbled.

"Yes… They might demand but they don't have the legal authority to interfere with other countries' agencies… Fortunately enough their government isn't too interested in their plans. They fear a "robot rebellion" and thus are keeping a close eye. When they see something that reeks they'll surely cut off their funding and then they won't feel so confident…"

"Let's hope so! And don't tell me you've been secretly repairing its internal circuits and systems."

"Of course not. I took some samples. It'd seem that child wasn't able to fully recreate the alien systems so he used some of our current tech to compensate for that."

"Say. Why don't you take out the fuel cells from the reactor?"

"Hum. Maybe we could do that. It's easy to do and the reactor is a currently existing system… Maybe we could take it apart. That way we would be sure that it's unable to move or turn on."

"About time!" Akatsuki fumed.

"Sorry. Looking back at it, you children did have a point. It's just that… How should I describe it…? Selfishness, I guess."

"Fine. Quarreling amongst us is what K&K aim to do in the first place and it looks like we're dancing to their flute's tune in the first place. Let's take out the reactor core. And maybe we could add biometric security to the annex building. And no overrides!"

"Alright. I'll talk it with the Chief."

Dr. Yoiri sighed and headed back to the lobby while Akatsuki, Vadous and Ryuusuke sighed in relief: Acid was silent.

"No comments, Acid?"

"No. You have reached an agreement so there's nothing to say about it. I agree with your suggestions."

"I also agree. Let's begin by reducing the risks." Vadous agreed as well.

"Huh? What's this? "The salmon will meek the Solomon." … Is this some prank that's become fashionable or what?" Ryuusuke wondered as he looked at his Hunter-VG.

"Omega! You idiot!" Vadous grumbled.

"Could be K&K making us think that it's Omega, too."

"… You've got a point. Huff! Too much stress here too. I need some green tea ASAP. Let's meet up on Friday to go over the details of the new surveillance plan."

"Fine. See ya."

The call finished so Akatsuki stood up and stretched: he picked a plastic cup with some coffee on it and drank it up before heading over to Ryuusuke.

"… Just in case… Go over the lobby cameras and make sure all who come in and out are really authorized staff. We don't want one of them to sneak in by posing as one of the staff again, do we?"

"Good point. I'll get working on it ASAP."

"I'll lend you a hand too."

Both began to go over the security footage while Akatsuki narrowed his eyes.

 _This time around we'll catch all of them… And put an end to this!_


	2. Chapter 2: Dukes and servants

**Chapter 2: Dukes and servants**

06:56 AM (Japan Time), Friday March the 4th…

"… Mwah, hah, hah, hah! Bloodshed! Run for your lives!"

"It's the Alphabet Murderer!"

"RUN!"

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah! I'll tear you to pieces!"

"That's as far as you come. Freak."

"Hmpf! Omega! So you did show up. Excellent!"

"Get ready! Assassin Shinobi!"

A mysterious attacker had shown up in the lobby of a radio station and began to laugh: the staff ran outside the building while a Wizard, Omega, showed up to face the attacker, who was named Assassin Shinobi.

"I'll tear you up! Mwah, hah, hah!"

Assassin Shinobi appealed as being over a meter and sixty tall and wore a pitch-black bodysuit reminiscent of _ninja_ clothing including a purplish cape hanging from behind his shoulders, two metallic _shuriken_ on his shoulders and knees plus a utility belt.

His face was largely hidden by a balaclava while his brownish teal hair came out from an opening behind it in a totally spiky and wild manner: his eyes' irises' were blood red in color.

A small green _shuriken_ glowed on his forehead, too.

He also carried a _katana_ sheath attached to his back using a leather band which circled his body from the left shoulder until close to the right hip: it was painted purple and black while being decorated with four black dots around it.

Overall he looked like a _ninja_ armed to the teeth yet he didn't strike out as being much older than Subaru  & co.

"Hmpf. Brag while you can."

"Dance while you can! Mwah, hah, hah!"

Omega was about a meter and eighty tall.

A blue jewel shaped like an inverted triangle was set on the forehead of his helmet which was emitting a cross-shaped flash.

His eyes' irises were blue: they displayed seriousness and were hostile while long blond hair came out from behind him and reached until the floor.

He had a red vest over his mainly black body and red armor over his forearms and boots: two golden circlets were set around his forearms and on his boots as well.

He held a weapon on his right hand which was a pyramidal green-colored energy saber with a white hilt.

"Eat these! Endless Kunai!"

"Huh! A new trick!"

Assassin Shinobi materialized countless _kunai_ that hovered in the air to his sides and in front of him covering a 180º radius: they all flew towards Omega but he quickly drew a white blaster which shot plasma rounds at high speed thus melting some of them: Assassin Shinobi flipped backwards and ran into the radio station's insides followed by Omega: the remaining _kunai_ stabbed the walls to the sides of the main door while some pierced through the glass and went out into the street to then scatter on the pavement: Omega paid no heed as he chased the attacker.

 _The guy must want to corner me in some narrow space and bring this down to swords because he's got confidence on his sword techniques. Bah. Like it matters. He got through me one time but he won't get through me twice. But the rascal surely has some dirty trick up his sleeves. Just in case I've got a backup DH user in standby._

"What's wrong, Omega? Did you turn into a turtle? You can't keep up with my speed? Mwah, hah, hah."

"Speak for yourself. You're but mice."

"MICE? ME? DAMN YOU~!"

"Hmpf. The hunter got hunted."

Omega entered a storage room full of spare equipment and which was only a couple meters wide and deep and tall: Assassin Shinobi was nowhere to be seen but his voice rang out from somewhere behind the equipment heaps: he tried to taunt Omega but fell for Omega's counter-taunt.

"Hiding is pointless. My IR tells me you're there."

"Sheesh!"

"Huh? Huh!"

Omega suddenly noticed something coming from behind and quickly turned around while placing the blade horizontally to block the incoming black mass: he managed to block it yet the inertia made him skim across the ground a few centimeters: he looked up and saw that it was Phantom Black's "Phantom Claw" attack: the man was standing on the corridor and his face was contracted into hatred.

"DAMN IT!" He roared.

"I see. So your man is a distraction to lure me and you were hoping to grip and crush me with it. But I've got peripheral sensors that tell me whenever anything dangerous comes closer than 30 centimeters."

TCHACH!

"UGH!"

"Hah! Fool! You lowered the guard!"

A _katana_ suddenly plunged through Omega's body from behind and emerged from the front: he glanced over his right shoulder and saw Assassin Shinobi standing behind him and gripping the sword with both hands.

"Damn. I focused my attention into you and since I'd marked this guy as "recognized threat" the sensors didn't warn me because I'd turned them off for CQC!" He grumbled.

"Not so mighty anymore, huh?" Phantom Black sneered.

"Huff. You were lucky." Phantom, the Mu Denpa Body, muttered.

"Shut up! Emissary of the evening tabloids!"

"Hmpf. What cowards. Let them be frozen for all eternity… Absolute Zero Dragon!"

"What? Ugah!"

"H-hyde – sama!"

"Just in time, Queen Virgo!"

"My bad. The man set up a feeble anti-Virus shield but nevertheless took me a few tens of seconds to smash it."

A serpentine dragon made of ice and with red glowing eyes suddenly flew across the air from behind Phantom Black and wrapped around him while cooling the atmosphere and slowly making ice encompass his body starting by the feet: it soon trapped him inside of a mass of ice and Assassin Shinobi gasped: Queen Virgo suddenly turned visible just behind him: she was calm and emotionless and was aiming her staff at Assassin Shinobi.

"Maybe you need to "cool down" as well." She taunted him.

"Sheesh!"

The opponent let go of the sword and warped into the corridor yet Queen Virgo was a step ahead of him and appeared in front of him: she thrust her staff into his chest area and the blow momentarily stunned him while making him recoil: Assassin Shinobi recovered immediately, though, and materialized a copy of the _katana_ he'd used to pierce Omega through: he took up a pose by lifting his arms over his head and then swung the _katana_ forming a curved arch towards Queen Virgo: she merely spun the staff and formed a veil of water around her thick enough to repel the incoming attack: Assassin Shinobi flipped back a couple meters but failed to block the incoming half-a-meter-tall water jet that rushed across the ground: the impact pushed him further back until he hit the farthest wall.

"Grrrr! I'm about to turn into pieces! Woman!"

"Hmpf. You will try, and fail." She was unimpressed.

" _Kiiriikiizaandee_!" A voice rang out.

"Shut up, Assassin! Now's not the time for your bloodlust!"

"Fighting each other, huh? Typical of the "Dark Side"." She mocked.

"URA~H!"

"Hum. The man still had some energies left."

"But it's vain. Eat Vaapad!"

THUD! PTAF! SMASH! CRASH!

"OUGAH!"

Phantom Black managed to shatter the ice enclosing him and rushed for her but Omega (who'd gotten rid of the sword piercing his body yet he had an open wound on his chest which leaked a bit of data) warped in the midst of his path and delivered a barrage of fists too fast to count: Phantom Black recoiled, disoriented, and clutched his chest with the right hand: he grimaced and seemed to be trying to hold back the pain.

"Want more? Got more in store!" Omega challenged.

"DAMN THEM ALL!"

"Sheesh! Damned barrier! I should've brought Breaker-Type Battle Cards!"

"Regretting it now, novice?"

"I'M NO NOVICE, I'M THE ALPHABET MURDERER!"

"Like I care. Clown come out of a circus."

Assassin Shinobi was striking Queen Virgo but was unable to break through her barrier: he grumbled and got annoyed at her taunts while she was unimpressed: he suddenly formed a flash-bang grenade which he threw into the air: the grenade detonated immediately triggering a powerful flash and shockwave that momentarily disconcerted Omega and Queen Virgo: when the flash subdued the two attackers were gone.

"Hmpf. Ran away. Whatever. It's just a little matter of time by now."

"Indeed. I'll go to switch places with Blood Shadow on Okudama Studios."

"OK. I'm going to talk with Boss and see if the preparations are advancing. The sooner the better but we need to make sure to close the grip or they'll run away the last second." Omega nodded in agreement.

"Obviously. Goodbye."

 _We're almost there. Just another little bit…!_

07:23 AM (Japan Time)…

"… So, Boss?"

"You already fixed that wound?"

"Yeah. Wasn't that much of a deal."

"Did you improve the layers' thickness?"

"Sure. I increased the inner layer thickness by 12.5%. As a result my overall speed will drop by about 7.25% but I'll manage nevertheless. Fortunately my energy core is consistent enough so that it won't break down."

"Fine."

Omega walked into a room somewhere and was talking with Vadous.

The floor was a narrow steel corridor wide enough for one person to stand which was shaped like two trapezes connecting each other by a line: the ground was lowered and covered in a grid – like metal on the spaces between each trapeze and to left and right of the corridor: another room could be seen expanding downwards below this one through the metallic grid's openings.

There was a small circle which marked the start of a rail crossing across the room until the other end: he followed it with his sight and ended up spotting a black metallic armchair with the Alphabet letter "V" painted behind it on purple color placed at the end of the rail and facing Omega.

The other end of the room contained a console which was filled with several LEDs, indicators, switches, levers and buttons plus a built-in keyboard and mouse pad: three gigantic and interconnected LCD screens had been affixed to the wall to be above it.

The room's walls had several metallic stripes built into it which contained round LED lights: the centermost point of the room had a hatch built into the ceiling which was currently closed.

"So? Are the preparations proceeding?"

"Yeah. We're finishing coming up with a pretext to keep those two sneaky mice in the behemoth so that they don't escape. But first we need to consider further surveillance."

"To figure out if they're doubles or not, right?"

"Exactly. They did fool us with doubles once, after all."

"Hmpf. "Fool me once, you're to shame. Fool me twice, I'm to shame."… Nobody shames us twice."

"Well… Remember what happened not too long ago with those "Anti Shooting Star"…"

"… You're right. Spoke too early."

Vadous looked close to his mid-twenties.

His eyes' irises were red and his hair was colored jet-black yet it was neatly combed and arranged: there wasn't the slightest trace of facial hair on him.

He wore body armor made of an unknown grayish compound material: some purple patterns were drawn around it.

He sported a ragged, torn and worn out purple cape attached to the back of his shoulders which spread all the way to the ground but had some centimeters' margin of space.

He lastly carried two elaborated sword sheaths attached to the thick central belt colored black running around his waist.

"Bah. Don't mind it."

"What about K&K? Or their doubles?"

"Hmmm… Today I think it was doubles. They were quarrelling every then and then. One of them would come up with a plan to "make the world's foundations shake" but the other would shoot it down saying it was too simple, too predictable or too crappy… Feels like they want us to believe they're unable to do anything but that we know it's not the case. We know what they're really aiming for."

"Did Tabuu try to scan the insides?"

"Yeah. Snuck in silently and began to scout the empty parts to check out if they've done any interior remodeling but they don't seem have to. Each has their own quarters and there's a living room where they meet and discuss."

"Fine."

"He did place a spyware on the main antennas' system to control whenever any of them comes in or out. Insofar it'd seem the last time they came out was 3 days ago… And they returned after a couple of hours, yet… Those who returned could've been the doubles. The real ones might be loose out there. Or maybe not and they're the real ones and they're acting up."

"Hard to tell, yeah." Omega sighed.

"Boss? Got news."

"Ah. Lartes. Did something happen?"

A man came into the command bridge.

Lartes, the man, had black slightly messy hair plus brownish irises' eyes.

He wore a medic's coat with the ID "Dr. Kazimura Lartes" written on it and sported brown pants plus shoes.

He had a pair of reading glasses on, too.

"I received a message into one of my old email accounts."

"From whom?"

"From Hyde." Lartes fumed.

"How did he know your old email?"

"That's the enigma."

"Maybe it's K&K." Omega suggested.

"Ah. Hadn't thought of that." He admitted.

"What does it say?"

"… "The Duke and his Vassal will win!"… That's all."

"Hum. I see." Vadous wasn't surprised.

"Why would they? Did you make sure it wasn't infected?"

"Of course. I had it go through three layers of anti-spyware, anti-virus and anti-malware. It came out clean. There was no hidden encrypted data or sub-programs or hidden attachments."

"Maybe it's a feint to make us think they're going to strike this place but in truth their aim is somewhere else. A trick to make us divert resources here instead of where they should be used at." Omega rubbed his chin with the right hand.

"Good point. Hmmm… I feel like it's a bit of a risky gamble… Nah. Let's not act up. Let's show them that their crappy feints don't work on us and that should frustrate them a bit. That could cloud their judgment too and would give us some advantage." Vadous decided.

"I agree. Now's not the time for risky gambles."

"Speaking of risky… Did Dr. Yoiri finally take out the reactor core from the robot?" Omega asked Vadous.

"According to Akatsuki, she did. In front of him and the Chief and some other staff to prove she was doing it. They decided to relocate the fuel cells to the prototype new-gen autonomous UAVs. The core will be totally disposed of in the upcoming week. They did another test to be on the safe side and the circuits remain as they are, damaged."

"Alright. That should take out some tension from them."

"Yeah. It'd seem her predictions met the mark and the Ameroupe government has denied the Pentagon the budget for their "Next-gen Special Forces". Any attempts to interfere with the study of the robot will mean that the people involved will be fired. But something tells me it won't go so easily."

"Yeah. Some might know skeletons in the closet of hi-rank politicians and would rather drag them to Hell with them." Lartes sighed.

"Power can corrupt…" Omega grimly muttered.

"Of course. There have been plenty of examples across the ages. And let's not forget how Joker ended up the way he ended up being."

"Power itself. He was too powerful, the others feared him, conspired against him and tried to dispose of him but he foresaw that and ran away… To end up meeting King and sticking around to fulfill his "Reason"… But his loyalty to King was a façade to begin with. King never had anyone loyal to him. They were using him to achieve their goals. Heartless, Jack and Queen Tia… And Joker too."

"Yeah. Oh well. I'm going to the VR Room. I need to build up a new technique to compensate the drop in speed and account the extra mass I've built up." Omega shrugged and headed south.

"Fine. But don't overdo it either."

"Roger."

"And I suppose you realize things are deadly serious. Now's not the time to run wild with your stupid childish pranks."

"Yeah, you're right. But you're the one who decided I needed that mode to avoid getting obsessed with pride, didn't you?"

"… Yeah. I've got my share of responsibility in that, too."

"Fine. Then there's nothing more to discuss."

Omega stepped into the elevator platform and it headed down diagonally: a new "window" popped up in the main screen and Vadous turned the chair around to begin working with the console.

"A piece of space debris about 2cm long has hit the hull but the damage is minimal, huh. Fine. The auto-repair nanomachines will fix that in the blink of an eye." He read aloud the message and shrugged.

"Well. I'm going back to the lab too. If you need anything give me a ring, Boss… And don't sacrifice sleep. You know it's not good for your body. It'll eventually take a toll on you."

"Yeah. You're right."

Lartes nodded in agreement and stepped into the platform which'd just come back to leave the room: Vadous began to hum a tune and work with the console.

"Let's see… The drive is ready to engage anytime… The cannons are loaded… The spears are so as well… And the defense bubble too… Good. Let's run a whole system inspection just in case. I should then go ask Kir-Osh about the status of the storerooms. We must make sure we're not running short of any critical supplies."

He began to input commands and new displays popped up.

 _Once we can tell the fakes apart we'll be able to seize those two…_

08:47 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Pororon! I did a check of the stage's Cybernetics along with Ice and found nothing out of place."

"Thanks, Harp."

"Don't mind it. Oh yeah. Queen Virgo was also patrolling the perimeter and searching beneath every pebble."

" _Sensei_ is very methodical."

"It always strikes me as odd that you call her _sensei_ since she was never your teacher, Misora."

"Well. Subaru – kun and the others called her like that and she's older than me too, so… It stuck."

Harp, Hibiki Misora's Wizard, warped into her room: Misora was sitting on the chair in front of the desk and working on the lyrics for a song as proven by several papers written in pencil which had traces of having been erased by an eraser and then rewritten: some were crumbled into balls and others were filling up the garbage bin.

Misora remained mostly unchanged: she wore her usual jumper with a hood but instead of her mini-shorts she sports full-length jeans and red running shoes. She looked concentrated on the lyrics and didn't even lift her sight from the papers when talking with Harp.

"… Hmmm…" She muttered.

"Pororon… It looks pretty good insofar."

"You think so? I hope you're being honest."

"Have we never been honest with each other?"

"You're right. It's just that… I feel… unsatisfied. I feel like it lacks something. I've got the sounds in mind and already wrote them down but the vocals… At some points I feel like they should be cherry but at other points I think they should melancholic…" She admitted.

"Maybe it's a matter of balance?"

"Could be. I always try to aim for a cherry style but I want to reflect that I'm growing up and we can't pretend everything's sweet and cute."

"Hum. You've got a point there. Maybe you shouldn't mind about sales and all and just do what you really want to do?"

"Good point. After all, Mamorou – san is always telling me that. Suzuka also says that."

"Pororon. I think you should as always. Let it come out of your heart. You do what you want to do. And there are people who aren't satisfied… Well, go look for another singer."

"Yeah. I'm not going by _clichés_ here. I want to transmit reality here. Maybe some people seek comfort and healing in songs. I don't think it's bad yet… I'm not going to pretend I'm sweet and _naïve_ either. There's a point in which it becomes too obvious that you're just putting up an act for the audience. I want them to see I'm serious. I'm not a day-dreamer like Luna – chan."

"It'd seem she's being stubborn again."

"Oh yes! Sure is! Calling every then and then and accusing of being in the way of some "universal glorious future"… I then ask her to bring out hard, solid proof and she hangs up because she knowns that she's got none. It's not like I'm annoyed at her, though. In fact, I feel sorry about her. I know that we girls tend to have that concern about who'll be our fated companion but… That's a _cliché_. Why let that condition your life? Why can't you just do what you want to do?" She left the pencil atop the desk and stretched.

"Pororon. Yeah. Why not? Does she want to live inside of a fantasy forever?"

"Sure. She's afraid of reality. Can't be helped being afraid at it but you'll have to come to terms with it sooner or later. Working with the Satella Police has contributed to that. Not to mention I've got a devilish gal who's after me."

"That Kanaya gal, huh… I still fail to see the point of that stuff she's so obsessed with. She's a Denpa body like me, why should she bother about that?"

"Meh! She's actually living in a fantasy of sorts too. Pretending she's above a mere Denpa body and pretending she can be a human that's above me."

"Guess that. Pororon."

DJARRRA~NG!

"What was THAT?" Urakata Mamorou roared outside the room.

"One of the stage's speakers suddenly turned on, sir." A Security Wizard reported.

"Sounded like a crappy attempt at playing a guitar." Harp commented.

"That gal? I find it odd, though. _Sensei_ is patrolling the area, after all."

"Pororon! Hey, Ice. Know anything?" Harp asked over the radio.

"No. I'll try looking at the security footage."

"Keep your eyes open just in case."

"Sure. I won't let that gal come close to Suzuka!"

"Huff! Is everything alright there, Misora?" Urakata asked through the door.

"All's alright."

"The lioness swung the tail and caught… What?" Urakata began to say before asking a question.

"A pineapple." Misora replied.

"Password correct. OK. Huh? Well, I'll be damned."

"That gal did show up?"

"No, it'd seem she spawned a copy of that Wizard that Ice turned into years ago…"

"Dia Iceburn, huh? Typical of the gal. Relying on proxies!" Misora wasn't too surprised.

"Queen Tia is sparring with it right now."

"Knowing _sensei_ she'll beat that cheap thing in the blink of an eye."

"Of course."

"Pororon! I managed to link up to security footage."

"Thanks, Harp."

A holographic display formed to show how Queen Virgo was fighting Dia Iceburn on the Wave Road atop the event stage: she was blocking the blizzard Dia Iceburn was shooting at her: Dia Iceburn drew the hammer and got ready to strike but Queen Virgo was faster than her and made an ice javelin that pierced through the enemy's body: Dia Iceburn was quickly deleted and Queen Virgo resumed scanning the surroundings.

"Do you copy, Hibiki?"

"Yes, I do."

"I find no trace of that woman in the surroundings. I'm checking footage of the inside the event stage but there's nothing. The building is protected by the anti-Denpa shield so she can't warp in either. And I detect no power failure or attacks on the shield yet I'd rather leave it on for another while and be careful to scan any Denpa body that comes in or out through the firewalls."

"Roger. I think you should tell Mamorou – san about it."

"Already sent him an email."

"That was fast. As expected of you, _sensei_."

"Thanks. But we can't lower the guard. The enemy could be aiming for that… If you're listening… Then hear me out… Kanaya! As long as I'm around you're not getting any closer. I'll freeze you and send you back to the Denpa Prison you belong to." She called out.

There was no response so Queen Virgo shrugged and resumed patrolling as Harp shut down the security footage: Misora stood up and exited the room and into the corridor followed by her.

"I need some more orange juice. And got stuff to do too." She told Harp as she placed both hands behind the head.

"Pororon. OK."

"Hum… Urakata – san… What does "a billion blistering barnacles" mean, sir?" A member of the staff asked him.

"Where'd you dig that out from?"

"I got a mail signed by "Aunt Mathilda" in which it say "A billion blistering barnacles! The might is mighty!"…"

"HUH? Oh come on. That's that Kanaya evildoer who's trying to cause confusion amongst us. Ignore it, son! Send this crappy taunt to the garbage gin and that's it."

"R-roger, sir."

"Is that your best taunt?" Misora muttered to herself.

"Surely not." Suzuka met up with her.

Similar to Misora, she sported a green jumper with a hood and jeans along with blue running shoes: Ice was following her as well.

"Oh yes. That gal can come up with stuff better than that. Must be annoyed so she wrote that in a rush."

"Thanks to Misora and Tia – san I feel less afraid as of late."

"Good. The less, the better. That'll prove to that gal that all of her tactics are in vain. She'd be better off minding her own business."

"Sure thing."

Both walked over to the vending machines: Misora picked an orange juice can while Suzuka choose a caffeine less coffee: both checked their email inboxes in the meanwhile.

"Nothing important. What about the news? Hum. No big deal, either! Weather forecast… Some rain by Saturday but Sunday is expected to be a clear, sunny day… Average temperature 11 Celsius… Fine."

"Spring is coming closer. We'll go see the _sakura_ blooming like always, right?" Suzuka asked.

"Of course! It's totally worth it."

"Pororon. The colors of the spring always bring me good mood."

"Obviously. The harsh winter fades away and the warm spring comes."

"If you need help with a song I'm always here to help you out, Misora."

"Thanks, Suzuka. Maybe you could give me a hand with a new one I'm working on. Maybe you can spot what it lacks."

Both nodded to each other and continued drinking their drinks.

 _Well, Kanaya… Sooner or later… Your ambitions will be over!_


	3. Chapter 3: Black business

**Chapter 3: Black business**

05:05 AM (Taiwan Time), Sunday March the 6th…

"… Did you check nobody can overhear us, Ku?"

"Yeah, Ka. After all this is a soundproof chamber."

"I did scan the whole floor, walls and ceiling."

"I scanned the surroundings too. Left no panel unturned."

"Let's speak in code just in case."

"Sure."

Two Wizards were talking inside of a metallic room with no decoration whatsoever: most of it was darkened so it was hard to judge the scale of the room.

"Alright. On my end… Things are ready."

"Same here."

"I hope you choose somewhere discrete… Kurayami."

One of them, Kurayami, simply looked like an imitation of Rock Man's Black Ace form but with blackish shades and no wings.

"Of course… Kanaya."

Kanaya was an imitator of Harp Note: she had purplish skull on her chest instead of the heart and the shades were also black and thick: the bodysuit had changed to a blacker coloring.

"Good. Now then. Until we find a chance… We need to show those guys we're competent. They won't believe the "always quarreling" act for much longer. And even less with _senpai_ roaming around."

"Why bother to call Queen Tia like that? You know that…"

"You're right. It got stuck on me."

"My bad."

"Bah! Don't mind it. You did well on pointing it out. Anyway… Yeah. Queen Tia is the main eyesore on my part."

"On my part I guess that it's Blood Shadow."

"Guess that."

"Let's see… We could try to make some ruckus… Hmmm… Got someone on mind we could manipulate to go berserk for a while. Maybe that could make them think we're going to aim for that as well apart from our main goals."

"Sounds like a good idea, yeah."

Kurayami was about to say something but he suddenly ran southwards and opened a thick door to look out into a largely darkened metallic corridor: there was nothing and it was very silent.

"… Thought someone was spying on us…"

"Odd. I've been scanning the surroundings with IR every then and then as we talked, you know? I caught nothing. Even if it had a low-temperature profile I'd be able to tell if someone was standing outside the room. And I'm telling you there was no-one." Kanaya argued.

"Ah. If you say so, then…"

He shut the door and returned inside: Kanaya was making her shades' edges glow with red light as she seemingly scanned the room: Kurayami did the same.

"You're right. No heat traces in a 50 meter radius…"

"And I pick no radio signals either. So there are no mikes. I'll later check out the antennas but I don't expect them to be so clumsy to use those to beam out the signals." Kanaya scoffed.

"Sheesh. It was a good idea indeed to ready each one's "room" separately and without telling each other its location."

"Sure. Even if, by some chance, they catch one of us, they won't be able to find the other one immediately."

"Yeah. Just like in cut-outs… They can't be used to trace back the origin of orders." Kurayami agreed.

"Maybe we can use some retro stuff to annoy them, too."

"Such as?"

"What was the name…? Magna – sama, was it?"

"That's a nickname. The official name is Magnadeus…"

"Which mean "Grand God" in Latin, right?" Kanaya recalled.

"Yeah. Demon God, I guess. The in-game description merely calls him a "demon" but…"

"Oh yeah. I love the guy's behavior."

"Who doesn't? "So you want to fleetingly fall apart beyond the void, huh… Let us begin."… And starts the game with his "Last Banisher"… You get reduced to 1 HP and unable to move for a while. And when you finally stand up he lashes out a single attack to put you out of your misery. And then says… "Worthless. Talk about a meaningless waste of my time."… Hence why the call the guy a "gentleman"…"

"Hmpf. Although Elaine had a good personality too. Stubborn but cool-headed… Didn't let emotions get in the way. I liked that sometimes she tried to speak like a man too. To prove she didn't give a crap about how one should behave in front of others. And how she always said "Fools" to her opponents. Her servants were pretty strong too." Kanaya formed an evil snicker.

"Sure. Our little trip to the 21st century was worth it. We managed to get some info and bring it back with us."

"Too bad Death got blown up, though."

"Yeah. Although I'm afraid that even Death would've struggled against Tabuu. That guy's way too powerful." Kurayami grumbled.

"I know. Rascal! If only we could find a way past that armor…!"

"Something tells me that even if we did he's got more in store."

"Yeah. It'd seem the armor powers him up to some level but…"

"He must be pretty strong sans it too."

"Speaking of which! Maybe the "spy" we think we've felt is the guy himself? He can hover and all so he can move out at a fast speed or warp somewhere else outside our scanners' radius." Kanaya suggested.

"But he should be unable to hear into our conversation nevertheless. Unless…"

Kurayami rushed to the southward wall again and began to inspect it: he cursed something under his breath in an undecipherable idiom.

"Damn them all! The sound-proof layer has been removed on a portion of the wall!"

"Devil. So that's how they manage things now! They want to be subtle, huh? Fortunately enough we hadn't said anything about where the "rooms" are at. Let's make sure to have the data on us but keep it protected against remote scans!" Kanaya hissed.

"Of course! But rushing things up isn't wise. That could be their aim. To make us impatient."

"Sounds like something they'd do, yeah!"

"Anyway. I managed to recreate one with data and place it in the gap so now the room should soundproof again. Let's check all other sections to make sure they haven't employed the same trick."

"Good idea."

Both began to meticulously scan the walls, ground and ceiling for a while without saying anything: they stopped after a few minutes and seemed rather satisfied with the outcome.

"All of the other panels are in order and are real stuff and not props to deceive us. They did figure out taking out so many could be easier to detect that taking just one out." Kurayami fumed.

"Yeah. Anyway. Back to the earlier topic… Whom do you have in mind to cause a ruckus?"

"I'd rather not say it aloud just in case. Tabuu could be lurking close by!"

"Fine. Do as you like."

"Hmmm… Let's say I'm going to rely on… an orangutan!"

"Orangutan? What, you're going to warp one from the Africa jungles to the middle of the city? But aren't orangutans rather bellwether animals to begin with? Why not a brown bear from Yosemite?" Kanaya seemed to frown under the shades.

"Ah, no… I didn't mean a literal orangutan but, rather, someone who's like an orangutan…"

"Ah. I see."

"Yeah. The type that uses muscle instead of brain. And to top it off… They believe they're invincible."

"I see, I see!"

"Yeah! I'm going to use that guy. Had it coming. Heh, heh, heh."

"Say! Maybe we could use "Mr. Bura~h!" to start up some other ruckus on another day!" Kanaya suggested.

"Sure thing! I'd love to see them struggling against the guy!" Kurayami snickered.

"We must program it to make sure it can stand its ground against Omega and the others, though."

"Leave it to me."

"Fine. In that case… I'm going to ready Elaine. It could be a good adversary to try out the limits of Queen Tia's patience."

"OK. Do as you like. I'm going to start working on things."

"Good. Tell me the results afterwards."

"Of course."

Kurayami exited the room and Kanaya remained there: she was rubbing her chin with the right hand and snickering.

"Hmpf! Queen Tia… I'd liked to turn you into my slave as well but that pale imitator got ahead of me… Oh well. Those two will suffice. I can always manipulate Shirogane to start up in-fighting as well, so... It's no fun to dominate a princess wannabe, after all… I don't want a stupid crybaby; I prefer the strong-willed types! Tee, heh, heh, heh…!"

07:39 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Mwah, hah, hah. The lil crow can't fly!"

"Stay still, you rascal!"

"I'm going to turn you into a featherless pigeon!"

"I'm a crown, damn it!"

"No! You're but an inferior novice pigeon!"

"EAT THIS!"

"UGAH!"

"Had enough?"

"Mwah, hah, hah… This pain! It makes me feel alive~… I'm going to carve you pain beyond imagination…!"

"Sheesh. Forgot this guy is a mix of masochist and sadist…!"

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah! Let's go! Pigeon!"

"For the last damned time…! I'm Jack Corvus! A crow! Not a pigeon! You rascal!"

Jack Corvus was quarreling with Assassin Shinobi on a Wave Road over a bay somewhere: Assassin Shinobi was taunting and mocking him so Jack Corvus swung his right arm and used the claws to leave some cuts on the enemy's chest: the enemy recoiled but then laughed in a manic way: Jack Corvus grimaced.

"Mwah, hah, hah… PAI~NNNNN!"

"You're annoying! Hell Pain Flame!"

Jack Corvus formed some purple flames that hovered over his palms (aiming upwards) and flung them at the ground where they caused a small explosion before turning into rings of flames: those flames then formed a row and jumped towards Assassin Shinobi who began to cut them with his sword: he suddenly spun on his axis and created two-meter-tall waves that rushed towards Jack Corvus: he warped to a higher Wave Road to escape the attack and Assassin Shinobi warped as well in front of him while swinging the sword drawing a 180º arch: Jack Corvus barely dodged in time by arching his body backwards.

"Sheesh." The enemy grumbled.

"Hmpf. Cheat codes, huh? As expected of a dirty rascal like you."

"Hmpf! Gloat while you can! You'll be food for the sharks!"

"There are no sharks in the Japan sea, moron."

"Hmpf! But there are on the skies!"

"Skies…? Oh shit!"

Jack Corvus turned backwards and saw "Death Shark" Viruses rushing towards him: they jumped out of the Wave Road and opened their mouths as they closed on him: but when they made contact a cloud of smoke ensued and a log was left behind: the Viruses bit the log while Assassin Shinobi quickly spun backwards while taking up a defense stance: he didn't see that the Viruses were now heading for him: they dived and suddenly bit his legs from "beneath" as they tried to drag him "inside" of the Wave Road.

"Stupid scum!" He growled.

He made a lightning bolt fall from a cloud into him: the electricity destroyed the Viruses so he warped away to another Wave Road only to receive two quick slashes by Jack Corvus' claws.

"Guh! Damn you!"

"Not so confident anymore, huh?" Jack Corvus taunted.

"Shut up! I'll show you REAL AGONY~! Endless Pain!"

Assassin Shinobi suddenly formed several "bunshin" of himself and they all jumped at Jack Corvus while drawing a vertical curved arch with their blades: they were repelled by a Super Barrier Battle Card that turned on: the "bunshin" faded away while the real one grumbled and was trying to come up with some other plan.

"Hmpf! You're such a show-off."

"You damned clown come from southern lands! What's taking you so damned long, HUH?" Hyde roared over the enemy's radio.

"T-that's… This guy is sneaky, Hyde – sama!" He complained.

"You're supposed to be the master of stealth! Disgraced valet!"

"I dunno what a valet's supposed to be!"

"Barbarian come from southern lands!"

"Oh boy." Phantom sighed close by.

"That the best you can do, Hyde?" Jack Corvus taunted.

"DUKE Hyde!"

"Force me to say it. Bankrupt aristocrat."

"TALK FOR YOURSELF! DISGRACED PRINCE!"

"Disgraced? Yeah, like it's my fault that our nation got invaded and wrecked because of some greedy rascals that wanted to steal our tech to make it theirs." He wasn't impressed.

He quickly spun backwards and cut into pieces a "Giga Stealth" Virus that had tried to close into him from behind: Assassin Shinobi tried to use the chance to attack him but a Stone Cube showed up in mid-air and intercepted his attack: Assassin Shinobi suddenly laughed in a maniacal way and Jack Corvus frowned: he suddenly exploded leaving behind a rather large mass of "Crimson" which began to generate "Noise" around the area: Jack Corvus grimaced as some parts of his Denpa – Henkan began to flicker or break down into raw data: he suddenly felt a sharp item cutting across his back's length: some of the armor's outer layer broke apart but a thin inner layer remained: he turned around and found Assassin Shinobi there.

"Damn it…! That was a "bunshin" too!" He growled.

"How's that like? I can use the head!"

"Bravo! Excellent! My script is SUPERB!" Hyde laughed.

"Bullshit. You came up with this outta the blue. You're improving along the way, as always." He hissed while trying to bear with the pain.

"How's this pain like? Isn't it overwhelming? Satisfying? Awakening? Rejoicing? MWAH, HAH, HAH, HAH! PAI~NNNNN!" He broke into maniacal laughter again.

"They should lock this guy in a madhouse!"

"This is only the prologue to endless pain!"

"Kuh…!"

"That's enough bullying, you freak."

"Huh? Akatsuki! Great! I'll show you endless pain too!"

Acid Ace showed up there and was aiming his blaster at Assassin Shinobi from behind: he wasn't surprised by Acid Ace's appearance and instead got cocky.

"Go ahead, my valet! Bring me that interloper's head in a silver platter! Mwah, hah, hah, hah!" Hyde laughed.

"He'll only bring you bad news." Phantom sarcastically muttered loud enough to be picked up by the mike.

"Shut up, you emissary of the morning tabloids!"

"Yeah, yeah… Don't blame me if it ends up in nothing, though."

"HMPF! Go, my valet!"

"Get ready, Akatsuki… PAI~NNNNN!"

"Hmpf. Come."

Assassin Shinobi dashed towards Acid Ace while readying the _katana_ : Acid Ace suddenly turned on his vernier thrusters and sped towards Assassin Shinobi at high speed: he didn't see that coming and got tackled by Acid Ace: both rushed forward and then Jack Corvus used the chance to grab the guy from behind and lift him to another Wave Road to drop him there before flying further upwards and then diving diagonally across the skies to push him away from the Wave Road and into free fall: Assassin Shinobi warped and landed in another Wave Road some meters below while grumbling under his breath: Acid Ace quickly landed in front of him and drew his sword while dashing forward: Assassin Shinobi rushed forward too and both clashed blades.

"I'll bring your head to my Lord!"

"You'll only bring him shame." Acid Ace taunted back.

"Sheesh!"

Acid Ace suddenly jumped backwards to break the deadlock: the enemy lost his balance and hit the floor.

"Grrrr! I'll show you real AGONY yet!"

"Less talking. Fight."

"Sorya~h!"

Assassin Shinobi rushed towards Acid Ace while making electricity wrap around his blade: Acid Ace made the same with his sword and they both clashed again: electrical bolts wildly jumped off in random directions but they barely affected either combatant: Assassin Shinobi hissed and pulled away but Acid Ace shot a charged-up electrical blast from his gun at him: the blast momentarily stunned him and he recoiled.

"Had enough, ugly?" Acid Ace taunted.

"Not yet…! I'll show you real AGONY yet!"

He suddenly warped and Acid Ace began to scan around to try to locate him.

"UGA~H!"

"That's Jack!"

He quickly looked at the surface: Jack had cancelled the "Denpa – Henkan" and had been looking on from the beach surrounding the bay's inner perimeter: Assassin Shinobi suddenly showed behind him and cut vertically across his back with the blade: Jack let out a scream of pain and dropped the Hunter – VG he had on the right hand: he dropped to his knees and Assassin Shinobi began to swing the blade as if he was going to behead him: a black featureless slab about two meters tall and some tens of centimeters thick and wide suddenly showed up and absorbed the blunt of the attack: the blade broke in contact and Assasin Shinobi recoiled, baffled.

"Tabuu! Damn it! I'm outta here! Next time you won't be so LUCKY!"

He used a flash-bang grenade to hide his escape just as Acid Ace dropped next to Jack, who'd lost consciousness and lay face-down on the beach's sand.

"Damn it. It didn't get to pierce the flesh but it left one hell of a cut across his flesh… Acid, ring an ambulance ASAP!"

 _Damn you, Shinobi! You damned psychotic coward! I'll catch you yet!_

10:28 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Will Jack be OK, Akatsuki – san?"

"He'll survive, of course, but there'll be physical and mental sequels. I don't think he'll be able to DH for a while either."

"Buro~! What a damned coward! And to think last month we were about to catch them…!"

"We underestimated them. It's also our fault. We could've gone catch them up but we thought that K&K would free them to annoy us and make of this an endless struggle."

"Huh! D-don't blame yourself, Akatsuki – san! I know you're doing the best you can!"

"Thanks, Gonta… It's just that…"

Ox Fire was patrolling the Okudama Studios grounds while he talked with Akatsuki over the radio: he punched the ground with his right fist to let out his anger and growled.

"Anyway. You stay there until Sigma ends maintenance and comes to replace you. Once you're done you can come see him. But he's still under the effects of the anesthesia so it'll take a while to wake up."

"Roger, Akatsuki – san!"

"Buro~! What a rascal!" Ox grumbled.

"Sure thing, man! I'd love to beat the guy up!"

"You want to run wild?" Someone asked from behind.

"Huh? What'd ya say? Run wild? Of course not, man." He didn't bother to turn around.

"Pity."

"Huh? Why's that a pity, man? And, say… Who are ya?"

"Someone!"

"HEY! You're Kurayami! Rascal! I won't let you harm Misora – chan!"

"Heh, heh, heh. I brought a surprise. Have a taste of this new explosive cocktail! Better than the Molotov cocktail!"

"Buro~! Damn! That's "Crimson"!"

Ox Fire turned around to see that Kurayami was there and had a mass of "Crimson" hovering over his right shoulder: it suddenly burst and released a huge amount of "Noise" into the surroundings: unlike with Jack Corvus, though, this "Noise" began to attach to Ox Fire's body and change the colors at random.

"Ugh! My head's going mad…! Wild…! I want to… Go wild…! Run wild… Destroy…! Destroy…!" Ox muttered.

"Guh! O-Ox, man! G-get a hold, man! Gruh… Guh…!"

"Submit yourself to the desire! And run wild! Destroy it all! You're born to destroy! Your goal is destruction! Go, Dark Ox!"

"BURO~H!"

A black "aura" suddenly burst out of Ox Fire's body as all of it (save the eyes) turned black: more and more "Noise" began to scatter around and made some of the equipment malfunction: the berserk Ox Fire jumped atop the main building and began to punch the energy shield surrounding it: fragments of it began to shatter like glass: Kurayami warped into the event stage and snickered as he crossed his arms and watched the drama unfold.

"Shock Note!"

"Buro~h!"

"Gonta – kun! Get a hold of yourself!"

"Whoa! What a powerful "Noise"…! Be careful, Misora! If we get irradiated by too much of it the "Denpa – Henkan" could break apart and get terribly damaged!"

"Gotcha!"

Harp Note warped into a Wave Road above and to the right of the main building and shot some notes at the berserk Ox Fire which knocked him away from the spot he was: the berserk Ox Fire suddenly warped in front of her and swung his both arms but Harp Note ducked and shot strings from her guitar that wrapped around both arms.

"Sorry for this!"

She aimed the guitar at him and electrical bolts travelled across the wires to electrocute Ox Fire: he roared and triggered some "Noise" around him which then turned into black paint which deleted anything it came into contact with.

"What a thing! They've turned "Noise" into some kind of anti-matter that deletes anything virtual!" Harp gasped.

"Well, Hibiki? Feeling the fear?" Kurayami taunted.

"You, huh? Thought it was your ex-mistress!" She wasn't too impressed at seeing him.

"Hmpf! Ka was busy. I came in her stead!" He snickered.

"Whatever. I'll deal with you later."

"Sure. Today I'm just the spectator. Struggle and put a show for the audience! You should've brought Mario with ya, though."

"I dunno who Mario is and I couldn't care less about your retro jokes. Are you unable to come up with something else that isn't based off on Omega? Or are you unable to do anything else but copying him? You lame copy-cat."

"What was that?" He got annoyed.

"COME AT FULL POWE~RRRR!"

"Damn! Sigma!"

"Same man! Fight, you sneaky mouse!"

"Sheesh!"

Sigma suddenly dropped into the stage while roaring and brandishing his huge blade: Kurayami jumped backwards to dodge and drew a double-barreled shotgun colored black and with a silver trigger.

"BURO~H!"

"Oh crap. I forgot about Gonta – kun!"

Harp Note looked around and saw that most of the surroundings were already stained with the "black paint": Ox Fire was merely jumping madly from one spot to another, roaring, and generating more "black paint" that scattered around.

"Despair!" Kurayami taunted.

"Hrah!"

"Guh! Too close!"

Kurayami had to dodge a straight punch by Sigma by ducking which almost hit him: he warped to the ground and ran into the small forest behind the stage: Sigma gave chase while Harp Note focused again on trying to stop the berserk Ox Fire.

"Guess bringing his HP low enough should suffice to trigger the emergency cancel of his DH." She deduced.

"Pororon. Then let's use water-type Battle Cards."

"OK. Wide Wave!"

Harp Note shot several Wide Waves into a row towards Ox Fire from behind but they boiled into steam upon hitting the "aura" which had become reddish. Ox Fire paid no heed either.

"Sheesh. That guy! I knew it wasn't going to be easy."

"What do we do, then?" Harp asked.

"Hmmm… Maybe… It's a bit risky but I guess we're not left with many other choices…"

She warped in front of Ox Fire and shot a "Shock Note" at him to get his attention: Ox Fire roared and rushed towards her but an explosion happened on his feet and he was sent flying to land face-up some meters backwards: the "aura" vanished as well so Harp Note jumped skywards and drew a Wide Wave Battle Card again which she shot at him: the attack impacted him and some of the armor began to break away or frizzle: Harp Note landed atop him and drew a Bubble Hook which she used to hit his face: some of the armor broke down as well.

"Look! The body's steadily regaining the normal coloring. It's like he'd just been painted over and we're washing the paint away." Harp noticed.

"Yeah. It's the same "black paint" that he's been scattering. All we need is water, then. Sorry for this, Gonta – kun!"

"Wait, don't tell me you…"

Harp Note suddenly formed more strings tying his body and jumped to the left while dragging him to toss him into one of the small water basins set near the entrance of the stage area.

SPLASH!

"Bugah!"

"Hold on!"

The "Denpa – Henkan" got cancelled immediately and Gonta began to struggle in the basin: Harp Note warped there and helped pull him out from behind: he left him face-up as Gonta was trying to get a hold of himself: she also retrieved the Hunter-VG which was badly damaged and so was Ox, who still had some "black paint" on him and some other parts of his body were damaged or gone altogether.

"Grrrr! Damn mice! Ran away with the damn hole!" Sigma roared over the radio.

"We're heading over there! ETA: 2 minutes!" Akatsuki reported.

"Alright. Gonta – kun just fainted. No wonder."

"Pororn. The "black paint" has self-deleted but the data it destroyed is gone. We'll have to rebuild it." Harp reported.

"Damn them all! First Jack, now Gonta! Just like how, a month ago, almost all DH users were lured into traps and put out of action! We need to get a hold on those rascals and soon!" Akatsuki growled.

"Rushing won't help things, Akatsuki – san. We'll be nervous and we'll make mistakes." Harp Note reminded him.

"… You're right, Misora. Huff. I need "Sweet Candy"! Tons of it!"

"Queen Tia will scold you for building up fats and calories, Shidou."

"She's not my wife, man!"

"I am unable to determine the cause of such obsession."

"Don't be so machine-like, man!"

Harp Note shrugged and sighed as she glanced at the KO Gonta.

 _So much suffering… and for what? Just you wait, Kanaya!_


	4. Chapter 4: Annoyance

**Chapter 4: Annoyance**

09:02 AM (Japan Time), Tuesday March the 8th…

"… Sheesh. This guy IS annoying!"

"Heh, heh, heh. Feel the power of the Dark Side of the Force!"

"Shut the trap up."

"Storming a storm, are we?"

"I HATE that pun!"

"Blame Futaba!"

"Oh come on! Like Tsukasa is to blame! He was serious when he named me "Storm"!"

A Wizard named "Storm" was quarreling with Kurayami on the Wave Roads over a small town.

Storm looked reminiscent of Gemini, the FM who'd picked Tsukasa as a host three years ago.

His main body was shaped like a spheroid and colored in a patch of green identical to Tsukasa's hair.

His head was round and perfectly shaped: a white-like helmet protected it and included a pair of purple-colored thick shades: his skin was normal-colored and his face looked young.

Two sharp needle-like tools emerged from his armored and purple-colored forearms and replaced his normal hands.

The rest of the arms were painted with the black and yellow striping to signal "danger" as if hinting at the usage of the appendixes.

Like most modern Wizards, he had a hover device built into the inferior part of his body instead of legs which had been colored in the same black and yellow stripes combination.

"The guy's sneaky!"

"Who, Tsukasa? You're one to TALK! You're cheaper than paper! Are you gonna fight or continue this stupid game of "tag" forever?"

"Hmpf! Brag while you can!"

Kurayami drew his shotgun and shot a salve at Storm but he formed an electrical barrier that deflected the attack: Kurayami suddenly switched to a javelin coated in "black paint" and quickly thrust it into the barrier: it got deleted instantly but Storm had already put some distance between him and the foe: Kurayami's inertia fell short and Storm shot a voltaic arc of electricity at Kurayami: he hissed and lowered the guard: Storm used the chance to form a whip like that of Heel Wizards and caught the javelin which had some "black paint" left to it: Kurayami cursed and drew the shotgun again.

"So? Willing to try this in yourself, ugly?" Storm taunted.

"GRHDHXOHTODH!" He growled something undecipherable.

"Guess it means "like I would"." Storm wasn't impressed.

"Whatever the damned ever. I'll blow you up to pieces!"

"Less talking. Fight."

"Eat this!"

Kurayami shot another salve but Storm jumped into the air above him as the recoil from the discharge pushed him backwards and landed behind him: he then thrust the javelin diagonally into the Wave Road below his feet and caused its deletion: Kurayami fell about 7 meters into another Wave Road and ended up hitting the floor face-up since he fruitlessly began to agitate arms in legs during the free fall: he groaned and Storm landed close by with the javelin on hand, which was now a normal javelin without any of the "black paint".

"Your own weapon will defeat you." Storm taunted.

"And now you think you're Confucius!" Kurayami growled.

"Well, Dragon Hell claims to be a disciple of Confucius but it's none of my business, anyway." He shrugged.

"Grrrr!"

"So?"

"Dark Recovery!"

"Cheat codes, huh? You can't win without them, huh?"

Kurayami used a modified Recovery Battle Card and managed to stand up to his feet yet the effects were not perfect since his balance was still far from complete and he looked visibly tired.

"I see. It's like a dose of adrenaline. It gives you a boost for a while but it then fades out." Storm analyzed aloud.

"Grrr…!"

"Or maybe you're putting an act up to make me feel confident and lower the guard too." He deduced next.

"Eat THIS!"

He suddenly formed an RPG-7 rocket launcher, aimed it, and shot the missile at Storm: he sighed, annoyed, and simply formed the electrical barrier again: the missile blew up the barrier and Kurayami rushed in with a new javelin coated in "black paint": Storm simply took out the metallic spear of the javelin from the wooden stick and made it skin across the ground towards the foe's feet: a bolt of lightning fell down and impacted Kurayami head-on, evaporating the "black pain" on his javelin: Storm picked it from his hands, flipped it around and stabbed Kurayami on the chest yet the armor was too thick and the only half of the spear made it through: Storm shrugged and grabbed it with his hands to generate electricity and made of the spear a conductor to his electricity: it flowed inside of Kurayami and he roared: Storm then warped and put a distance of about 5 meters between them: he did well because a "Death Shark" Virus suddenly jumped out of the Wave Road but got fried by the electricity flowing in the air: Kurayami recovered somehow and let out a long hiss.

"D-damned PUPPET!" He roared.

"I'm no – one's puppet. You are a puppet of those ancient sages."

"WHAT?"

"You're doing exactly what they wanted you to do."

"I overcame them!" He hissed.

"No, you didn't. They sealed you because they decided the time was not ripe yet. And you came up with the idea that it was because they feared what they'd created. They didn't."

"No! Impossible! I am darkness itself! Hatred! Fear! Anger! Despair! Greed! Lust! What living creatures hate the most! A force of the Universe! I am the essence of the Universe! Of dark matter! Of dark energy! Of black holes!"

"Black holes aren't made of dark energy or matter. It's just a gravitational anomaly caused by the death of a star."

"What would a mere DEFECTIVE know?"

"Defective? Oh, sure. And you're the ultimate, huh? And you let pet that "Gurenna" jackal toy with you all."

"GRRRR!"

"So? Did you end gloating in vain?" Storm let out a yawn.

"DAMNED INFERIOR DATA LIFE-FORMS! OUR FATE IS TO RULE THIS WORTHELESS WORLD AND FILL IT WITH DARKNESS! WE WILL BE REBORN ETERNALLY TO ACHIEVE THAT!"

"Huh? You were saying?" Storm pretended he hadn't heard anything Kurayami had said.

Kurayami scowled and tossed the shotgun away to rush for Storm as if wanting to tear him apart with his hands: Storm merely sighed, disappointed, and lowered his right arm in a lazy manner: a "Stonegul" Virus dropped from above and crushed Kurayami under its weight: he got trapped beneath the Virus and groaned as he tried to shake it off his back but was unable to: he growled and placed his right hand over the ground: "black paint" formed beneath it and spread across the terrain: the Wave Road got deleted and both fell down yet Kurayami warped and reappeared behind Storm yet Storm had seen it coming so he flung an electrical whip and made it coil around the spear which was still stuck on the foe's chest: another discharge travelled to the insides of his body and he roared: Storm warped away to put distance as Kurayami hissed and tried to move forward yet his walking was sluggish.

"So? What happened to your early gloating, huh?"

"S-shut up…!"

"Huff. You spoke with such might and yet you got tricked very easily, didn't you? You're but cocky rascals to begin with."

"D-damn it…!"

"Ku! You've got a lot of damage and your internal armor is compromised as well." Kanaya warned over the radio.

"Sheesh…!"

"But if you want to die here and now then do as you like. I won't get you of this pinch. You're the one who said that men fight until the end and don't need anyone's help!" She shrugged.

"I take it back…!"

"You were saying?" She sneered.

"Yes, Mistress…!" He lowered his head and said the title without really wanting to do.

"Say it louder. Too much interference!"

"YES, MISTRESS!" He said aloud.

"That's better. Don't forget that YOU were the one who decided to become my pet for a season!"

Kurayami grumbled something under his breath as a black hole with a purplish edge formed on his feet: he sunk inside and the hole quickly vanished: Storm shrugged.

"Had it coming." He muttered.

"Good work, Storm." Omega told him over the radio.

"Thanks. But I hardly sweated. Then again it might be the classical "feign begin weak to make the other commit mistakes" tactic."

"Sure thing. When it comes to those rascals… Do as you like."

"OK. I'm coming back for a check-up just in case."

"Something tells me that gal will show up next. I'll dispatch Miles to teach her a lesson but she'll surely rely on being sneaky."

"No doubt. Oh well! At least I did some exercise."

"Once we assess the extent of their abilities then…"

"…We'll be able to bring them down, huh? Excellent."

10:37 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Tee, heh, heh. The milestone bites!"

"And what if?"

"Sheesh."

"And "Miles" doesn't come from the measurement unit. It's Latin and it means "soldier"…"

"Hmpf! More like rookie!"

"If you must."

"Sheesh."

"That your best shot?"

"Far from it! Dirty man!"

"Speak for yourself. Rotten apple."

"ROTTEN APPLE~? ME~? DAMN YOU~!"

"Hmpf!"

"I'll bury you!"

"You'll try. And fail."

Another Wizard named "Miles" was chasing Kanaya across a set of Wave Roads crossing over a forest: Kanaya was trying to taunt him but he was unimpressed.

Miles' main body was more "humanoid" in shape and colored in a brownish color similar to sand: some patterns had been drawn over the body to form plates of armor.

His helmet had been painted sea blue and black shades hid his eyes yet it looked strong and resistant.

His arms were colored in a reddish color with white color stripes running up and down their length.

The forearms had extra armor on them and his hands' "skin" was black.

He carried a round golden shield with a silver edge and center on his left hand which was large enough to protect half of his body.

Like a Roman Legionary, he wielded a large lance with a brown body and silver spear set atop it: the weapon looked easy to maneuver and powerful at the same time.

He also had a hover engine built onto the lower part of his body which allowed him to remain air-bone.

"Eat this! Gatling gun!"

"Useless."

Kanaya drew a black Gatling gun and began to unleash its barrage of bullets into Miles but he used his built-in shield to block them and make them bounce: he suddenly speed away as a paint bucket filled with "black paint" fell from above and hit the Wave Road, spreading some of it over its surface and deleting a part of it: it went on bouncing off other Wave Roads below this one until it ran out of paint: Kanaya crouched and then jumped high into the air to overcome the gap and opened fire again: Miles rushed towards her while using the shield to cover and turned on a small jet engine built into the lance's body: it shot forward and stabbed into Kanaya around the stomach area: she groaned and landed on the ground to pull it out with the left hand as she continued to shoot with the Gatling gun on her right hand: she ran out of bullets all of a sudden and Miles used the chance to warp forward, pull the lance out and stab it again: this time it plunged deeper and Kanaya let out a exhale of pain: she suddenly tossed the Gatling gun and gripped the upper edge of Miles' shield with her right hand: "black paint" formed and began to delete it so Miles let go of it and pulled away: she flung it away and pulled out the lance which she flung away too.

"Hmpf…! And you claim to be a hero of justice, huh?" She mocked.

"I never said I was. I simply said I don't like cowards like you who want to destroy the future generations of humans."

"HUH? I never said I wanted to do that!"

"You didn't but that's what you're doing. Torturing humans to the point their mindsets suffer a traumatic breakdown and they're haunted by those memories… And become unable to go on with life…"

"Hmpf. It's education! If they're not strong enough to bear with pain then they're of no use."

"There's no rule forcing anyone to be resistant to pain."

"There is! Rule of the strongest! Strongest survive and evolve! Weak die and become extinct!"

"I fail to see the connection. You use pretty words to try to justify what is mere arrogance, cruelty and sadism."

"Hmpf! What would a piece of junk know?"

"I know this much. I dunno why you, a data life-form, would bother with such illogical actions."

"Hmpf! I'm above a mere data life-form! I'm the incarnation of the world's hypocrisy!" She snickered.

"Don't tell me. Well? Is that all you can do?"

"Of course not! I can do THIS!"

She materialized the Gatling gun again and began to shoot out bullets but these were coated black instead of being mere metallic bullets: Miles formed a new shield and used it to block the attacks yet the bullets didn't bounce off: they broke down when impacting and turned into small stains of "black paint" which began to accumulate on the shield's surface and slowly erase it away: Miles grumbled and tossed it away but then Kanaya rushed towards him using a Jet Attack Battle Card: she drew a Heavy Cannon Battle Card and instead of shooting a burst of energy she shoot a stream of "black ink" which impacted on the middle of Miles' body: his outer armor was deleted and his inner armor was exposed: he warped away to another Wave Road as Kanaya chased after him: she began to shoot cannon shells which began to land around the area spreading further "black paint": Miles formed a new shield and lance and made the lance fly into the cannon as it was loading a new attack: the lance pierced through it and caused its explosion: the "black paint" inside jumped off and landed on Kanaya's body but she merely absorbed it back.

"Hmpf! We're not as stupid as Grievous!"

"Who?"

"Whatever. Point is: think we'd build weapons that can harm us? You idiot! This "black paint" is part of us! It's limitless! We can generate as much as we want!" She snickered.

"Hmpf. Just what I expected. Mere sneaky tricks and no real strength or tactics. No better than Phantom Black and his servant."

"DON'T PUT ME ON THE SAME LEVEL AS THOSE INCOMPETENT MORONS YOU PIECE OF JUNK!" She got annoyed on the spot.

She hissed and materialized a Black Ink Battle Card: instead of ink, though, it shot "black paint" forward while staining the floor with it: the torrent hit Miles but he vanished with a cloud of smoke and left a boulder behind: he reappeared to Kanaya's right and tackled her with the right shoulder: she lost balance and dropped into another Wave Road: Miles hovered there too and drew a short-length lance which he plunged into the earlier wound: it thrust deeper than the previous attacks but "black paint" began to leak from the wound and it deleted the spear: Kanaya clutched the wound with the left hand and let it be stained by the leaking fluid: she formed a small spheroid of it around the size of a handball and flung it at the air above Miles before shooting it with the Gatling gun: the spheroid burst and a shower of "Black Paint" ensued but Miles merely dashed forward to be out of its radius.

"So? What part of this isn't like those two?"

"KWUGAHFYGAHU!" She hissed something undecipherable.

"Guess none."

Kanaya closed the left hand as if expressing her anger and then punched the Wave Road: a black line spread across it and a thin wave of energy emerged from it and travelled forward: Miles used a Machine Flame Battle Card to make it ignite and explode: Kanaya rushed forward while having a Drill Arm Battle Card coated in "black paint" ready and already spinning: Miles simply used a Tornado Dance to kick her away and make the substance jump off the drill's body: she flipped in mid-air and recovered to land on the ground.

"Why this piece of junk…!" She hissed.

"Charmed." Miles drily countered.

"NYAGRA~H!"

"Cat complex? Go see a veterinarian."

"SHUT THE HELL UP! DIRTY MAN!"

"You've got no authority whatsoever. And I can see that your boast of before was a lie, too. You must use some of your mass and energy to create the "black paint" and when you're low in strength you can't create too much of it. Only minimal amounts."

"Sheesh!"

"Acting weak in purpose to make us do mistakes won't work. We've seen through your poor acting AGES ago."

"Shut up! I'm not done yet! Eat this!"

She suddenly formed a series of "portals" from thin air that surrounded Miles and began to shoot "black paint" at him yet he merely formed 3 layers of "Super Barrier" and let them absorb the attacks: Kanaya hissed, frustrated.

"DAMN THEM ALL!"

"So?" Kurayami mocked over the radio.

"Shut the hell up. I'm getting outta here on my feet! Remember that you owe me one!" She hissed back.

"Hmpf! Time will tell. As for you, piece of junk…! This isn't over! Not yet! Next time I'll bring out arts to make you suffer agony!"

"Assassin Shinobi will sue you for stealing his script."

"KI~H!"

She formed the black hole with a purple edge and quickly sunk inside to flee the scene: Miles quickly scanned the surroundings in case she was trying to sneak on him but it didn't seem to be the case.

"I'm coming back but I'll keep an eye out the whole time. That gal could be aiming for a surprise attack."

"Of course. We can't discard the possibility." Omega agreed.

"I'm sure that discussion over the radio isn't real, too. It's part of the crappy acting to make us think they'll eventually fight each other for supremacy."

"Obviously enough. If only they did that we'd have two headaches less but they surely aren't going to do us a favor. Sheesh."

11:48 AM (Japan Time)…

"… So you will fleetingly fall apart beyond the void, huh… Alright, let us begin…"

"HUH? Fleetingly fall apart… beyond the void? Does that even make sense to begin with?"

"Must be "cool" appeal. Trying to pose as a wise man."

"Be careful, Shidou. Queen Tia. Analysis suggests the enemy's stats are very high and any of his attacks could be fatal. And it would seem their name is "Magnadeus…""

"Magnadeus?"

Acid Ace and Queen Virgo were standing in of the squares of the Wave Roads surrounding the WAXA Japan Branch building: a mysterious Wizard named "Magnadeus" was standing there.

This Wizard was quite tall, maybe about three meters tall.

Most of their body was covered in golden pieces of armor save for some gaps on the knees' sides and back, the elbows, wrists and fingers and an area around the stomach area.

Two large golden and curved "horns" emerged from behind the shoulders and drew a shape reminiscent of a "C".

The head was covered in armor save for two cavities surrounding the eyes which were small, red eyes. A small horn emerged from the forehead and there was no visible mouth or nose.

The armor around the neck expanded somewhat outwards and acted as a kind of mask hiding the nose and the mouth.

A tall reddish cape began behind the body and reached until the ground.

The enemy had been crossing the arms and hovering some centimeters over the ground as if waiting for them: a male voice boomed out and Acid Ace was perplexed but Queen Virgo wasn't impressed: Acid warned them.

"Panicking storm…"

"Whoa! What winds!"

"Huh! They must be above 50 km/h!"

The enemy suddenly triggered gusts of wind without moving at all and which began to push the duo back: it suddenly moved forward at fast speed and began to move his arms forward and backwards as they turned into shapes that seemed to be purple-colored snakes.

"How's this like?" He taunted.

"Guh! They've got a "poison" effect to them!" Acid Ace grumbled.

"Patience. There'll surely be an opening… Now!"

"Ah yes. I was forgetting THIS!"

"Kyah!"

"Tia!"

Queen Tia tried to rush forward and attack with her staff but the foe suddenly attacked with the arms again and she got hit: the enemy quickly pulled back to its original position: a holographic displayed opened and some text appeared on it.

"Huh? "Your "time" is mine"… What does that mean?"

The enemy silently formed a red glowing circle below its feet that expanded: Acid Ace stepped inside and then his body suddenly froze: the enemy's cape suddenly turned into a shape reminiscent of a lion with a huge mouth and bathed him in flames.

"Out of the way!"

"Guh!"

"Aqua Dragon!"

"I can make all of your efforts turn be in vain as well."

"What? I don't like the sounds of it."

Queen Tia tried attacking with the Aqua Dragon and it did hit the enemy but he was far from impressed: another displayed showed up.

"Eh? "Not giving you time to suffer can be merciful, even."…?"

"Absolute faith…"

A gigantic sword colored red fell from the sky and hit the ground causing a shockwave which hit both combatants.

"This guy's annoying." Acid Ace grumbled.

"He is receiving damage but he doesn't react at it." Acid told them.

"Must think he's cool!" Queen Tia fumed.

"How about you say something?"

"Say what?"

"You do not say anything… Well then, this is the end."

"The end of what?"

"Flee!"

He aimed his arms forward and they turned into snakes' heads which opened and let out a torrent of flames: both dodged and the enemy formed another display.

"What now? "I shall pity you."… Pity us? Oh come on."

"This is getting ridiculous." Queen Tia fumed.

"I shall bury you in a single blow!"

The enemy suddenly dashed forward and attacked with the snakes but then shot the flames from the cape and the snakes' heads at the same time: both defenders held on but the enemy suddenly crouched and formed some torrents of steam that broke their defenses.

"What fools! Annihilated flesh… Can you withstand it?"

He suddenly formed a powerful red-colored shockwave with such force that it pushed them into the air and made them land into a nearby square: the enemy warped there as well.

"You cannot withstand it, huh…"

"Oh come on! We're getting nowhere! Eat blaster!"

"Distorted conviction…"

A purple circle formed on their feet and some small bursts of energy emerged from it and upwards thus encompassing their bodies and inflicting burn damage.

"Vanishing flames…"

A red circle formed and some flames leapt out and attached to their bodies: Queen Virgo formed two Aqua Dragons to put the flames out and they focused on the enemy again.

"Well. Hope's light is briefer than you think, you know?"

"What was that? Trying to say that hope doesn't work here?"

"My Aqua Dragons and water jets and all are inflicting damage but he doesn't react yet. Acid. How much HP does he have left?"

"About half. His HP value is set at 10000 points."

"10000? Heck." Acid Ace grumbled.

"Huh? Another display? "Resurrection? What boring folk."… What "resurrection"?" Queen Virgo frowned.

"Heh, heh, heh… Well then, shall we do that again?"

"I've had enough!"

Acid Ace jumped over the enemy and tried to stab them from behind with this blade but it shattered when attempting to hit it.

"You seek safety? Then leave this area…"

"What was that?"

"Worthless. What a meaningless waste of my time."

"Akatsuki! Get away! Light of Saint!"

Queen Virgo jumped and then slowly landed down while forming four pillars of light around her: she had them spin and hit the enemy, who, as always, didn't flinch in the least: he suddenly flung one of the snake-arms at her and she grimaced as she felt its fangs biting her right shoulder: she pulled some distance as Acid Ace shot a Daba Flame attack at the enemy: the enemy countered by crouching and forming the steam to break through their defenses.

"Let's end this farce already! Wing Blade!"

"Light of Saint!"

"Hmpf! Hah! You fools!"

"You're the fool!"

Acid Ace tackled the enemy from the front while Queen Virgo landed behind him and used the Light of Saint to inflict further damage: the enemy stopped all movements all of a sudden.

"That was pretty interesting…"

He suddenly turned black and exploded thus staining both combatants with the "black paint" which deleted several parts of their armors.

"Gah!"

"Kyah!"

"Kuh…!"

Both recovered from the surprise attack and scanned the surroundings before warping to the ground and releasing their "DH": both of their Hunter-VGs had physical damage there and there: Acid materialized and he had some spots in which the outer shell had been erased and his inner shell was exposed.

"We need to get you and these to repair NOW. Sheesh. So that's what those two can actually do, huh?" Akatsuki grumbled.

"That would wise. This damage level cannot be ignored."

"Seems like it. Using proxy to fight us. Hmpf." Queen Tia was hardly impressed.

"At least Jack is making a steady recovery but I'd rather keep him outta this for a while. He could feel tempted to act out of revenge."

"I know. I've been trying to talk him out of it and he seems to understand yet… It's not easy. I've also felt the temptation as well."

"Huff. We need to vent off this tension. I'm going to the gym."

"Good idea. Maybe some boxing will relieve the tension."

Akatsuki glared at a tall cubical annex building recently built next to the eastern wall of the yard: there was only one door and no windows and the door had a security system built into it: he shrugged and sighed.

 _That piece of junk inside of the annex still gives me the vibes. Oh well. We've gotten a pretty good idea of what they can do. We'll soon move in and catch them and Hyde and Shinobi… And put an end to this struggle!_


	5. Chapter 5: Hordes

**Chapter 5: Hordes**

03:33 AM (Bermuda Time), Thursday March the 10th…

"… Bura~h!"

"Shut up."

"Scorching burn strike!"

"And what if? It doesn't work on me."

"THIS is where YOU DIE~!"

"Objection. Prosecutor Mitsurgi Reiji and Attorney Naruhodou Ryuuichi don't agree."

"Today I feel like a gentleman. You were LUCKY!"

"Don't tell me. By the way, I'm Tabuu. And I don't want to waste much time with you, Barbatos."

"Bura~h!"

A Wizard was fighting another Wizard on the ground surrounding a small cubical concrete building built in the midst of a small island somewhere: the base had a parabolic antenna with blinking red and green lights set on its base to mark its position to any planes.

The surroundings were dark and surrounded by a thick fog: the sound of waves washing into the shores along with the howl of the wind were the only natural sounds.

One of the Wizards who called himself "Tabuu" had a humanoid shape and seemed to be around two meters tall.

Black armor made of an unknown material covered the whole of his body thus protecting him.

The helmet around his head lacked nose or mouth yet it had two cavities for the eyes which were plain red and lacking iris: but they seemed to be a decoration more than his real eyes, too.

His shoulders were plain and didn't have a spheroid form unlike most Wizards: he had elbows and the armor over the hands included two small dome-shaped objects with the Alphabet "T" character colored in rainbow colors drawn upon them.

The armor extended across his legs, being thicker around the knees and ended in ellipsoid segments protecting his feet: rainbow-colored lines travelled down their length.

The main body was absent of decoration save for a pattern drawing the same Alphabet "T" letter in the middle of the chest the colors of which were constantly shifting and mixing.

Lastly, four large and irregularly-shaped wings formed behind him: its colors were also constantly shifting, too.

"This'll be over in the blink of an eye! It'd be better for you not to resist this attack!"

"Oh, sure. Like I'm going to listen to you."

The opponent, named "Barbatos", was human-shaped.

He appealed as a man on his 30s with slightly darkened skin: he had messy blue hair that spread slightly behind and below the shoulders and the front: his eyes' irises were blue.

He wore tight clothes which covered the whole of his body.

In the upper body he had a central white drawing reminiscent of a clover: it was surrounded by a blue drawing that went on narrowing until it ended around the waist.

The outer edges of his body's clothes were colored deep blue and so were the arms until the writs. Some cyan patterns ran across the edges of his arms and until the white bracelets on his writs. His hands were also covered in deep blue cloth.

He wore a piece of cloth shaped like a "V" on the waist with yellow edges and black body: two small spheres with a golden edge and blue body were placed parallel to each other with some distance amongst them.

The enemy covered his legs with a cyan piece of cloth yet the right one was largely visible: like the arms, they were covered in deep blue cloth.

Lastly, he had black boots which had a green drawing consisting of an ellipse and three leaf-like figures drawn inside.

He wielded a large double-edged axe on his right hand which he aimed at Tabuu as he made a psychotic grin.

"Don't use ITEMSSSS!"

"I don't need to use Battle Cards. My power alone will suffice. I'm just saying what you can actually do before beating you."

"Recovery crystal skills? What weaklings!"

"Stop saying stuff out of your game's context." Tabuu grumbled.

"Bura~h! Grand vanish of annihilation!"

Barbatos swung his axe and a sword made of yellowish energy fell diagonally from the sky and headed for Tabuu: he merely closed the wings around him and formed a purplish thin round shield which bounced off the blade and made it shatter: Barbatos struck the shield and managed to shatter it with his axe but was unable to get past the wings so he warped and tried to attack from behind: the axe hit the armor but didn't leave as much as a dent and the edge deformed: the axe regenerated and Barbatos warped back to the front.

"You bastards depend on spells to survive! You can't do anything apart from spells!"

"Huff! Those two! They're annoying me."

"You're not the only one." Vadous grumbled over the radio.

"I know. It's so LAME. What they were hoping to achieve? They know this thing can't possibly damage me."

"Put up a show. To make it look like they can't do anything better than this but they can."

"Obviously!"

"Don't shrink! Execution of conviction!"

"Shut the trap up. You're a stupid rascal who turned into a coward and have enmity with the man who stopped your rampage instead of accepting that you brought that into yourself."

"Heh, heh, heh. Tabby – chan turns out to be a gamer! Talk about amusing!" Kanaya's voice boomed out of nowhere.

"Who'd said it?" Kurayami chuckled.

"And what if? Just because I'm an alien I can't be a gamer or what?"

"You brats! Show your hides and face me if you've got any dignity left to you!" Vadous roared.

"BRATS? US! WE'RE AGELESS!"

"But you behave like brats." Tabuu poked.

"NYA~H!"

"Shilling fall of despair! Evil gate of manslaughter!"

"You get lost."

"Scum doesn't know the words "get away"! You're gonna die! You're gonna vanish! Think you'll survive by bowing in front of me! I'll smash you into DUST!"

Barbatos suddenly began to warp and attack from many positions in a row and loaded energy on the axe to unleash it atop the helmet: some cracks formed on it and spread across it.

"What? Oh crap. Forgot to improve the resistance to shockwave-type attacks…" Tabuu grumbled.

"Hah! You're not so invincible anymore!" Kanaya taunted.

"Did I ever say I was? Spoiled kids who depended on some freakish monster to win?"

"HEY! Death was no freakish monster!"

"Sure was. Wanted to cover the universe with that "Omicron factor" thing and turn all life-forms into aberrations under its control."

"This is where you… DIE! DIE! DIE, DIE! DIE~!" Barbatos suddenly began to roar as he jumped into the air again.

"Get lost. For serious."

Tabuu spread his wings and energy flowed from their edges into the air where he formed a reddish spheroid of energy: Barbatos hit it and spheroid imploded, releasing a shockwave which pierced him in two by the waist: he roared and was deleted.

"There. Show's over. You're next, kids."

"We're not kids!"

"THERE YOU ARE~!"

"Crap!"

"Run!"

"You're not getting away! Damned brats!"

Tabuu warped and appeared inside of a stone corridor inside of the building: he spotted Vadous chasing after Kurayami and Kanaya and beat his wings to catch up to them: the duo got cornered in a cul-de-sac and drew their weapons: Tabuu suddenly formed two thin chains of yellowish energy and flung them to twist around their weapons and yank them again: Vadous drew his swords.

"Hmmm? This data signature…? Thought as much, _aibou_ … They're body doubles. Wizards with no AI of their own which have the same shape and they're being remotely controlled. In short: mere puppets. And they've already stopped beaming control signals back and forth." Tabuu told Vadous after he analyzed the enemies.

"Had the hunch, yeah. Hmpf. Then let's get rid of these!"

Vadous thrust both swords forward and pierced through the body doubles: they were silently deleted and he grumbled as he sheathed them again.

"Even if they were able to read some of Hoshiwaka's and Hibiki's memories, what made them get so interested into that whole BDSM thing? I don't think either of them knew about that at the time."

"Dunno. Maybe they decided that they could do stuff that's legally forbidden to minors of age because they needn't obey legality. And they found that. They must've thought it would be fun to side with those "different" hence why they're gay and lesbian respectively."

"Maybe they thought it would fit with their "essence" which they boast so much about: bringing upon pain, despair, sorrow, suffering and such."

"Surely. Bah! Not in the mind to play Freud psychoanalysis. We'll shut them in the brig like we did months ago. This time for good!"

"Of course. No – one is going to get them outta there again."

 _Hmpf! I'll see to it myself! Stick out your necks, you filthy cowards!_

16:48 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Gonta! Confess!"

"Whoa! What's up, _iinchou_?"

"You're being sneaky as of late. Who's the girl you're sticking with?"

"HUH? Oh come on! _Iinchou_! You know I'm part of the Satella Police Denpa Henkan Squad along with Subaru! We're being called for training or dealing with any of those four! Right, Subaru?"

"Yeah. And even if Gonta was sticking around with a girl… That's none of your business, right, _iinchou_? I'm sure his lawyers would agree."

"HMPF!"

"Oh boy…!"

"Oi, _iinchou_ … Jealousy won't help you become "elite", you know?"

"Be quiet, Jack! I am OVERWHELMINGLY disgusted!"

"Huff. Girls."

"Yeah. I agree with you, Tsukasa – kun."

The Kodama Middle group had come out of the school: they were all animated yet Luna looked annoyed at something: she suddenly directed a hostile face at Gonta and began to question him: Subaru was hardly impressed, Kizamaro sighed, Jack argued only to have Luna snap at him and both Tsukasa and Kiboyama rolled their eyes.

"I knew it!"

"Knew… what?"

"It's the kitten, right!"

"Kitten? You mean Misora – chan? Well, she's part of the unit, too, but that doesn't mean anything special!" Gonta argued back.

"Yeah. We're serious. We have to deal with those cheating rascals and we're too busy to waste time in _cliché_ romances. It's no game, either. I'm alive by inches!" Jack hissed.

"Jack. I understand the shock of the other day but revenge never accomplishes anything." Subaru warned him.

"I know you're right, Hoshikawa, but…!"

"I know. Instincts sometimes override rational thinking. It's happened to me as well. Especially after what happened with Virus Daemon."

"Who?" Luna frowned.

"That bandit who wore a white mask and a top hat. He dared to call you to taunt you, remember?" Mode reminded her.

"Wasn't that the barman of the teachers' bar?"

"No~…"

"Oh come on. What made you get the idea, _iinchou_?" Subaru asked with a sigh.

"Looked like it."

"Barmen don't wear masks and top hats, you know. They're not much different from waiters in appearances. I think you're mistaking barmen with people who disguise in the Carnival."

"Ah, is that so? Well… Maybe so."

 _At least she admits it. That's a slight improvement. Some months ago she'd deny it out of pride. Guess her parents' scolding is finally starting to take effect._

"Heh, heh, heh… Found you! Virus Daemon! Confess! I know it! You've been Virus Daemon all along, hiding under the mask of a fancy store owner! But I saw through your disguise and poor acting! Because the soul of Shakespeare is my ally!"

"Whoa! Who's this guy? You look old-fashioned, man!"

"That voice… It's Hyde!"

"Crap! Let's hurry there!"

"Jack. You wait here with the others."

"… Fine."

Hyde's voice suddenly rang out from the Big Wave store: Subaru and Gonta gasped and rushed there while they ordered Jack to stay behind: he looked about to object but calmed down and obeyed.

"Subaru – kun! Help me! This guy is saying I'm a criminal on the run! I ain't that!"

"Huh? Hoshikawa! Good timing! I'll kill two birds with one stone! The soul of Austria is my ally!"

"I don't think so."

THUD! PTAF! TCHAC! SLAM! CRASH!

"Ouga~h! YOU~! SOLO~! DAMN YOU~!"

"Whoa! Solo! Been a while!"

"I know. Been training…"

Subaru and Gonta rushed into the store: Hyde was aiming his cane at Nangoku, the store owner, and he turned to face them: he looked very cocky today but, suddenly, Burai appeared to his right and delivered his set of punches and kicks: Hyde was sent flying and crashed into the Card Traders to the left of the store, knocking them to the floor: he groaned while Subaru greeted Burai who didn't bother to look back at him: his voice was dry, too, to prove he was serious.

"FINE! FOUR BIRDS WITH A STONE!" Hyde roared.

He managed to stand up and drew his "Ancient Star Carrier".

"Denpa – Henkan! Hyde, On Air!"

"Here we go again. Oh well." Phantom muttered with some resignation as if he foresaw the end result.

"Denpa – Henkan! Hoshikawa Subaru, On Air!"

"Denpa – Henkan! Ushijima Gonta, On Air!"

Both Subaru and Gonta employed their Hunter – VGs to transform: the four of them warped out of the store and into the Wave Roads spreading along Kodama Town's airspace: Phantom Black grinned and brought out a spheroid of "Crimson": the three defenders were unimpressed and merely shifted to defensive stances.

"Come out! My newest servant! Crush my enemies! Smash them to pieces! Mwah, hah, hah, hah!"

"GROA~H!"

"T-this roar…! Don't tell me it's another copy of that thing!"

A "black hole" formed on the Wave Road and the "Crimson Dragon" Rock Man had fought years before emerged from inside of it: the monster roared and spread the wings.

"Hmpf. Mere recycling." Burai was hardly impressed.

"I'll be bait." Ox Fire whispered.

"Alright. But if the "Noise" levels rise too high then pull out. You have the Ace PGM like me but this "Crimson" has been altered and the "Noise" it emits is slightly different to the one we're used to. The program might suffer incompatibilities when trying to absorb it and neutralize it. Gotcha?" Rock Man whispered back.

"Gotcha."

"Hmpf! You may plot all you want, in vain!"

"I wonder about that. Your shadow is about to betray you." Burai drily shot back.

"What!"

He turned around as if fearing an attack from behind: Rock Man jumped over the Crimson Dragon and him to face Phantom Black: he had already readied a Charge Shot: Phantom Black covered with the cape and became invisible to warp away: Rock Man kept his cool and scanned his surroundings: Phantom Black appeared SE of his position and was about to swing down the cane to hit him: Rock Man brought up his shield and blocked the attack: Phantom Black warped again and this time he tried to sneakily attack Burai from the SW but Burai quickly turned into that direction and delivered his "Flying Knuckles": Phantom Black hissed and warped again: Ox Fire was drawing the attention of the Crimson Dragon in the meanwhile and tackling its core whenever it became exposed.

"Is that all? You're no better than mice." Burai taunted.

"Hmpf. Speak for yourself." Phantom Black shot back.

"Me? Did I ever run or use some sneaky tactic? I always attacked from the front."

"Sheesh! You damned vermin! Phantom Slash!"

He reappeared north of Rock Man as he looked to the east and began to create a "tornado" around him sucking Rock Man in: Rock Man used the chance to unleash his Charge Shot into Phantom Black's chest: he wasn't taken aback by the attack and formed the Phantom Claw: it rushed for the ground and suddenly gripped Luna.

"Kyah!"

" _Iinchou_!"

"Mwah, hah, hah! Miss Heroine here is my trump card to absolute and masterful victory!"

"Hmpf! I knew it. You're the same coward you've always been."

"This time… I won't hesitate."

"What was that?"

"Help me, Rock Man – sama~!"

Phantom Black used the Phantom Claw that was gripping Luna as shield: Burai scoffed and Rock Man was calm: Luna called out for him while Phantom Black frowned as if taken aback by Rock Man's behavior: he suddenly turned into "Burai Noise" form and drew an imitation of the Laplace Blade that Burai owned: he flung it skywards and Phantom Black directed his eyes at it: Rock Man quickly drew a Sword Fighter Battle Card and in the blink of an eye cut the main body of the Phantom Claw: it got deleted and he grabbed Luna before warping back to the surface and leaving her on one of the benches.

"Oh yes! I expected no less from you, Rock Man – sama~!"

"Take shelter." Rock Man ordered: his glared was deadly serious and indicated he wasn't open to objections.

"Y-yes, sir!"

"Over here!" Jack called out.

She rushed inside of the Big Wave store which had deployed a defensive energy shield which had an opening to let people in and out: once she was inside that opening got covered by the shield thus protecting the whole of the building: Rock Man warped back into mid-air and caught the Laplace Blade as it was falling to the ground before reuniting with Burai.

"Sheesh!" Phantom Black hissed.

"GROA~H!"

"Huh? Impossible!"

He gasped when the core of the Crimson Dragon glowed red before imploding: the energy release deleted it while Ox Fire jumped over the shockwave and reunited with the other two.

"Buro~! Hmpf! I knew it! That thing was CHEAP."

"Impossible! The soul of Austria is my ally!"

"And what's it supposed to do in the first place?" Phantom sighed.

"To bring me victory!"

"Oh yes. Were it so easy. Mu had countless Denpa bodies to wage war and yet the Sages lost the civil war against the citizens who wanted to put an end to their arrogance which was killing off the lands." Phantom reminded him.

"I didn't hire you to give me history lessons!"

"You seem to forget the point of history. To know one's mistakes and improve upon them or prevent them from repeating."

"Sheesh! You evening four-penny tabloid envoy! Shut up until I give you permit to object!"

"Oh come on. How many times have we been over this, Hyde? There were no tabloids, whatever that's supposed to be, on Mu. We already had stone tablets and the Star Carriers to store and exhibit info. I dunno what a penny is supposed to be, too. You seem to believe we're in the 19th century but it's the 23rd century."

"I decide that!"

"No, you don't."

"Shut up!"

"I only stick around because you released me from eternal slumber in that worn down Mu outpost, else I'd called quits AGES ago."

"Grrrrr!"

"So? Not feeling so confident anymore, huh?"

"Come to these…! Eat this!"

He flung the Crimson spheroid into the air and it imploded thus releasing large amounts of "Noise" around the area: some devices began to malfunction like the bus stand or the Real Wave bridge which broke down into the basic 3D model it was without the "layers" surrounding its surfaces: Rock Man and Burai were unaffected while Ox Fire jumped down to the ground to put some distance from the major concentration of "Noise": Rock Man and Burai drew their blades.

"I'm already doing "Noise change" to begin with. If you want to feel my "overkill" then I'm going to do it."

"Hmpf."

"Damn. Not that again."

CLANG!

"Did you think I haven't felt your stench ever since I appeared here? Mu Denpa bodies can't hide from me."

"Sheesh!"

Assassin Shinobi had tried to sneak into Burai from behind but he turned around and used the Laplace Blade to block a horizontal swing of the _katana_ possibly aimed at cutting his neck: Assassin Shinobi grumbled as Burai directed a dry and bored glare at him.

" _Onoree… Shineee_ …"

"Hmpf. That defective Mu Denpa body doesn't impress me."

"Shut up, Assassin! I need concentration!"

" _Funnn_!" The Denpa body, Asssassin, fumed.

"Talk about worthless pride."

"Speak for yourself!"

"I'm one of the Mu descendants, I have the right to. You're but a commoner who went psycho because of another madman and that fool over there granted you this defective Mu Denpa body to make you stronger but it doesn't change the fact you're a commoner."

"Hmpf! Sure! A commoner who's killed 26 men and I don't feel any regret at it! Take that!"

Assassin Shinobi suddenly formed a _katana_ that hovered in the air behind Burai and rushed towards his back: it stabbed there and about a third of it managed to pierce through the outer armor: Burai hissed but didn't lose his concentration: he flung the Laplace Blade upwards and dragged the enemy upwards too since he was clutching his sword blade with the both hands and it was stuck in one of the indentations of the Laplace Blade: Burai let go of it and the force of gravity made Assassin Shinobi drop to the floor face-down: he groaned and Burai placed his right foot over his back to look down on him.

"Just like I said." He drily taunted.

"Damn you~…!"

"And that poison program you equipped the blade with has already been nullified thanks to my armor's defenses. Don't count on it."

"Damn it!"

"… Stay still, you damned BRAT!"

"Oh, sure. Like I would!"

Rock Man was jumping around and exchanging blows with Phantom Black as he hit him on several spots with the Laplace Blade and Phantom Black tried to hit him with the cane: the foe had lost his cool and was madly swinging desperately trying to hit Rock Man but he was always a step or two ahead of him.

"The soul of Austria is my ally!"

"Sure, sure."

"I'm invincible!"

"Oh come on! All madmen have always said that. The Sages did, too, and they got beaten because they themselves were powerless. They relied on their proxies like the Royal Guard and the Denpa bodies." Phantom grumbled.

"Shut up, your half-a-shilling morning tabloid! I'm in charge of this grand drama and I'll see that it ends as I see fit!"

"Grand drama, huh? Sure, sure." Rock Man wasn't impressed.

"By the blood of the Hyde family! I shall have you hanged from the tallest tower of my manor!"

"Oh yeah? Of that ruin you're living in?"

"NO! Of my grand manor in Vienna!"

"You don't have any proprieties in Vienna. We all know that."

"Hmpf! Like I would use my name on them so openly! The time for that isn't ripe yet! But it'll soon be!"

"It'll never be. You're going back to the brig. Along with your petty servant… And once we lock K&K there too then no-one will get you outta there. You're an annoyance to the common criminals too so I doubt any that of them will bother to help you out. They'd rather get rid of the ruckus you always start up." Rock Man coolly shot back.

"HMPF! I wasn't planning on relying on such filth, such scum, such illiterates, such merchants of death, such plebs!"

"… Sorry for the delay. There were some Virus hordes sabotaging Warp Points there and there and thus we had to cross through the Noise Waves Joker used in the past."

"Ah, Akatsuki – san. We have this under control, sir."

"I can see that. Good job."

Acid Ace called out from atop the Big Wave store: he was observing the status of things and seemed to be satisfied insofar: Burai and Assassin Shinobi had resorted to fists and kicks to fight: Burai had a clear advantage insofar yet Assassin Shinobi gave off the vibe of being up to something else or having something up his sleeves.

"Hey, Solo. Been a while. I supposed this advice means nothing to you but that _ninja_ rascal looks about to use some sneaky trick."

"Hum. You've got a point, Akatsuki. I was about to get too confident, even. Your warning was helpful."

"Sheesh! Akatsuki! You bastard!"

"Nobody forbids me from giving advice, you punk!"

"Grrrr!"

Assassin Shinobi suddenly drew a stun knife and stabbed Burai's stomach area with it: the output of the knife momentarily stunned Burai: the foe drew the _katana_ and swung horizontally towards the neck but Laplace materialized and crossed his arms which ended in blades to form an "X" shape: his own blades blocked Assassin Shinobi's attack while Burai recovered and pulled out the stun knife.

"Huff. You were right. That was close, even. I owe you one, Laplace. I'll reward you later." Burai muttered.

" _Ma… Ga… Ka…_ " Laplace muttered something.

"No, I'm not giving you any _sushi_ even if it has a 50% discount at Roppondo Hills' "Iroaya Sushi" store. Stop reading my spam inbox or retrieving the deleted messages. You needn't eat to begin with. Did you forget that?" Burai let out a sight of defeat.

"Come, my servant! Together we'll bring down this damned anarchist that'd rather plunge Austria into anarchy instead of allowing the grand House of Hyde to restore glory and patriotism!"

"… R-roger that, my Lord!"

Assassin Shinobi warped and reunited with Phantom Black as both rushed towards Rock Man: he suddenly was surrounded by a sphere of red "Noise" which soon dissolved to reveal he'd "Finalized" into the "Black Ace" form: he was already reading the black spheroid of energy which he flung behind the two of them: they gasped but they couldn't run away from the pull of the "black hole": Rock Man drew his reddish blade and cut through the air as he flew past the "black hole": it collapsed and the energy release hit both enemies, sending them flying: they opened a "hole" of their own on another Wave Road and quickly dived inside before it closed: Rock Man cancelled his transformation and sighed.

"Too bad. We were close to catching them."

"I know. But we've finished improving our counter-weapons. Once those two dare to show up then we're rounding all of them in a clean sweep."

"Hmpf. Perfect. I'm already fed up with these weaklings."

 _At last, the end is within our reach… Your fate is to be defeated!_


	6. Chapter 6: Black Vs Black

**Chapter 6: Black Vs Black**

02:04 AM (Japan Time), Saturday March the 12th…

"… Achoo! Brrr! It's freezing cold, damn it."

" _Chiiii_ …!"

"No, going hunting won't heat me up either… And I don't want Hyde – sama to get further mad."

"You're not the only one. Ever since Thursday the guy's closed himself in his room and is going over _The Art of War_ by Sun Tzu. Thinks that'll help him win. Like it'll do."

"Sure, man. That's when you fight with armies! Not when you fight a guy who can control the Meteor Server!"

"I know. And those guys know perfectly where we are what we're doing. They're not attacking yet because they know that if they close us up those two carbon copies will come and let us free because it's beneficial to them to begin with."

"Sheesh. I know we let them outta the brig once and then we abandoned them to be caught so it's gotta be another form of their revenge. I never thought it was a good idea but you know Hyde – sama."

"Speaking of which…"

Shinobi was standing guard in a worn down living room somewhere: he was sitting in an equally worn down armchair in front of a fireplace that was on but he felt cold nevertheless.

Other furniture included a worn down wooden table about half a meter tall filled with papers that had many things written in them, a copy of Shakespeare's _Macbeth_ , and a postcard of Vienna.

There were two sets of windows partly covered by worn down blue silk curtains which were closed, and wooden doors leading in and out on the SW and NE corners of the room.

A simplistic central lamp was hanging from the ceiling.

Shinobi's outlook when he wasn't transformed, barely changed at all: he didn't have the _shuriken_ on the shoulders and the forehead or the cape.

He'd also unequipped the _katana_ sheath and placed it right of the armchair.

He was currently talking to Phantom and another Wizard, both of which hovered to each side of his shoulders.

The other Wizard was reminiscent of a typical ghost, having a white body with no legs and a hood with a Halloween-like face carved on it emerged: its "eyes" glowed with reddish light.

"What?"

"I can feel those two. They're less than 10 meters away. On the southern end of the roof." Phantom whispered.

"Come to laugh at us, huh? I better transform in case they intend to break in and start a brawl." He grumbled.

" _Chiiiii_!" Assassin hissed with eagerness.

"Idiot. Denpa bodies don't have "blood". It's data. They're not sheep! So shut up! Denpa – Henkan! Shinobi, On Air!"

He transformed into Assassin Shinobi and warped outside of the manor and into a Wave Road crossing over and across the manor: Kurayami and Kanaya were there with their weapons ready and having smug grins on their faces.

"Hmpf! You inferior darkness! We've come to purge you out!" Both boasted.

"Oh, sure. With puppets?" Phantom was hardly impressed.

"Puppets?" Assassin Shinobi frowned.

"Yeah. Remotely controlled Denpa bodies… They're not the real ones. It's got to be their newest trick to avoid the Satella Police catching them once and for all. Because they're waiting for an occasion like this one." He explained.

"Hum. I see."

" _Funnn_!" Assassin grumbled.

"Like I'm to blame for that."

"Fighting each other, eh? You'll eventually kill each other!"

"Speak for yourself." Phantom dully noted.

"HMPF!" Both played the strong.

"Phantom! Shinobi! Where are you are at? You must listen to the inspiration that Richard III granted to me! It's grand and noble and invincible and supreme!" Hyde called out from below.

"Trouble, Hyde. Those two carbon copies showed up."

"Carbon copies?"

"Lil Hyde is getting senile." Kurayami mocked.

"Better write your memories now." Kanaya sneered.

"YOU BASTARDSSSS!" Hyde roared.

"Oh man." Assassin Shinobi sighed.

"Phantom! Come at once! I must settle the score!"

"Fine. But they're mere puppets so even if you beat them that doesn't change anything, mind you."

"I don't care! As long as I can CRUSH THEM!"

"Fine, fine."

Phantom warped and there was the sound of Hyde transforming: he appeared as Phantom Black next to Assassin Shinobi and aimed his cane at them in a fencing-like pose.

" _En garde,_ you ruffians!"

"Hyde~… Now's not the time to imitate French noblemen…"

"Eat this!"

"Phantom Slash!"

"Hmpf! Decoy skill!"

Both attacked with their default weapons: Phantom Black spun to create a tornado that deflected the Gatling gun's attack while Assassin Shinobi formed a boulder and vanished to reappear behind Kurayami: he swung the sword downwards and inflicted the same wound he'd done to Jack a few days earlier: Kurayami groaned and turned around.

"Damn you!"

"Hmpf!"

"EAT THIS!"

"Ougah!"

"How's that like?"

"An excellent sting of pain… Enough to make feel EXCITED!"

"Oh hell. Forgot about this guy's weird masochist and sadist mix!"

Kurayami managed to shoot his shotgun at close range at his foe: Assasin Shinobi groaned and recoiled while clutching his wounded chest with the left hand: he lowered his head for a moment and then lifted it: his glare and voice were filled with eagerness: Kurayami grumbled and put some distance.

"Phantom Claw!"

"Ough!"

"Bring me this brat's NECK!"

"Delighted! Hah!"

Phantom Black used his "Phantom Claw" to catching Kurayami from behind taking profit of his distraction: he was using a slab of reinforced steel to block off the salve from Kanaya's Gatling gun in the meanwhile: Assassin Shinobi rushed forward while reading the sword: the "Phantom Claw" was suddenly deleted and he unleashed another blast from his shotgun at the approaching Assassin Shinobi: he recoiled and Kurayami used the chance to warp away as Phantom Black looked with disbelief at the "arm" of the "Phantom Claw".

"Crap. Must be that "black paint" I've heard about…" Phantom muttered aloud.

"What "black paint"?"

"Well… As far as I know… It's something that these two have made up from "Noise" that can delete any data on touch instantly and forever… A new weapon…"

"E~H?"

"Feeling the FEAR?" Both taunted.

"Oh no! On the contrary… I feel the excitement! The pleasure! Which will reach its peak once I cut off your NECKS!" Assasin Shinobi eagerly countered as he readied his blade.

"This guys is such a freak. For real." Kurayami grumbled.

"Yeah. We underestimated the guy's psychotic side. No wonder he was able to kill 26 men and he doesn't feel any regret about it despite that he's not a real _ninja_ or a trained soldier." Kanaya fumed.

"Meh! That was too boring! I merely snuck in, told them their usefulness had expired, and cut off their necks! To then engrave an initial of their name in their backs… I want to see despair! Agony! Suffering! Pain beyond imagination! I want to see them beg for me to put them out of their misery!"

"Good, good!" Phantom Black got cocky.

"That could apply to you, too!" Kurayami tried to show confidence.

"Hmpf! Nice bluff. I serve my master until I die! Hyde – sama granted me a command! And gave me the means to achieve it! Else I would've died long ago as an anonymous man who never did anything remarkable… Save for sending his own old man to Hell!" Assassin Shinobi sneered.

"Hmpf! All your talk about those silly games and you were unable to shatter Hoshikawa's mind! Talk about a deception!"

"You're the one who underestimated the guy's mind. The guy saw it coming, anyway, so he wasn't shocked in the least when we fucked him back then." Kurayami fumed.

"Yeah. We went all out on the guy's two buddies and they managed to resist as well. But this time around things will be different. We've improved ever since then!" Kanaya snickered.

"Improved at running away! You're no better than us in the end! So much for the "Ancient Darkness"… Mere defectives!"

"DON'T CALL US DEFECTIVES! FOOLS WHO RELY ON THE SAGES' FOOLISH RELICS!" Both yelled.

"I wonder about that… I see it… Your necks rolling on the ground!"

"Go, my servant!"

Assassin Shinobi aimed the blade upwards and begin to recite something in an unknown language.

"En… A… Un… Sa… Do… Na… Ra…"

"Hmpf! Nice bluff!"

"Now you DIE~!"

"Try to catch me, you brats!"

Both copies rushed forward: Phantom Black began to warp while Assassin Shinobi's body emanated some kind of "aura": two copies of him appeared behind the copies and swung their blades to cut off their necks: their heads fell into the ground as the bodies stopped moving: some data leaked from the cut off necks: Phantom Black gripped both bodies with his "Phantom Claw" and began to crush them by applying force to them: both bodies were deleted while Assassin Shinobi picked the heads: they self-deleted all of a sudden but he wasn't surprised.

"That wasn't fair!" Kurayami's voice rang out from somewhere.

"You should've struggled more!" Kanaya hissed.

"Hmpf! "You want to see my full power? I am afraid I cannot do that. You are not qualified to demand that!"…" Assassin Shinobi suddenly quoted to taunt them.

"GHDAHGHXGHT!" Both hissed something undecipherable.

"Good, good!" Phantom Black got cocky again.

"… "Ending pulsations…"…"

"Stop quoting the lines from Magna – sama we didn't get to use the other day!"

"Hmpf! Eye for an eye! You mice!"

"We're not mice! YOU are the mice!"

"Hmpf! You're no better than bandits striking the merchants who come and go across the nation!"

"Damn you!"

"I feel… Mettorio. They're using them as speakers." Phantom whispered to Phantom Black.

"Hmpf. Thought as much! Bah! Whatever."

"You won't be so LUCKY next time!"

"Because now we know all of your lil tricks!"

"I can come up with ten more by the next time… And next time I'll grant you eternal agony!" Assassin Shinobi laughed.

"Good, good!"

" _Onoreeeee_!" Assassin suddenly hissed.

"Huh? What's wrong with…? Burai!"

"WHAT? YOU BASTARD!"

"Hmpf. I've been watching your pitiful show."

"PITIFUL? DAMN YOU! PHANTOM CLAW!"

CLANG!

"Damned barrier!"

"Hmpf. You never have enough, huh? You brought all of this into yourself, you fool."

Assassin Shinobi looked to the left and up and spotted Burai standing with his arms crossed standing atop a Wave Road: Phantom Black got annoyed and tried to shoot his "Phantom Claw" at him but it got bounced off the "Mu Rejection": Burai didn't even bother to move from where he was as he mocked the enemy.

"Talk for yourself! So much confidence on your power and you got beaten twice!" Phantom Black hissed.

"And what if? I was more narrow-minded back then. But I did manage to bring Rock Man to his limits when our rematch. You, on the other hand? You went around delivering Denpa bodies to start up a fuss there and there and despite that you got the info on Mu's location in the end you only managed to get your hands on the "Dinosaur" OOPArt because you played dirty."

"Anyone would've taken profit of that situation!"

"Hmpf! Only a coward would've thought of appearing when neither of us were unable to move. And, besides… You're the one who ended up "awakening" the power of the OOPart on Rock Man by kidnapping his friend and using her as hostage, weren't you? So you brought that into yourself as well!" Burai pointed out.

"GRRRR!"

"If you'd used the "Shinobi" OOPart you'd secretly found weeks before you showed up in the TK Tower to start that fuss maybe you wouldn't have brought so much misery into yourself."

"Hmpf! Talk about yourself! Instead of bursting in and stealing it by your own hands you relied on those stupid eyeballs to steal the OOPart in your stead! Didn't you!"

"Well. That's a fact I can't deny yet… I didn't want to waste my energies on something so simple… And, at the same time… I wanted to see what those eyeballs could actually do. See a sample of what my ancestors had been able to create…" He shrugged.

"You stay quiet, my servant! This is where I prove my talents as the inheritor of the House of Hyde!" Phantom Black hissed at his accomplice since he was about to attack Burai.

"R-roger, my lord."

"Talents? More like pointless dialectics."

"Oh man." Phantom sighed.

"So much gloating and your own Denpa Body is a single-minded piece of garbage that secretly reads your emails and steals data from you! It's but a load of crap!"

"And what if? Does that make you stronger?" Burai shot back.

"I'll have you hanged from my castle's higher tower along with that damned brat!"

"Brag on. Try to get past this shield first. And survive one full minute."

"Phantom Slash!"

"Fool."

Phantom Black warped and attacked with his tornado to momentarily nullify the "Mu Rejection" but Burai merely jumped inside of the tornado and delivered his array of kicks and punches: he gripped Phantom Black by the neck area and used a _karate_ technique to flung him over him and backwards: Phantom Black crashed face-down into another Wave Road below and behind Burai's one: he groaned and used his cane to momentarily lean as he tried to stand up.

"Hmpf. 44 seconds." Burai scoffed.

"DAMN THEM ALL!"

"There's more in store… For you!"

"Guoah!"

Assassin Shinobi had tried to sneak on Burai as he was looking down at Phantom Black but he quickly turned around to intercept him: when he attacked him, though, his body faded: Burai frowned and then felt a sharp sting of pain coming from his back: he clenched his teeth to contain the instinct to let out a yelp of pain: he looked over his left shoulder and saw that Assassin Shinobi had pulled the same trick he'd used on Kurayami a while ago on him: Burai warped again as Laplace materialized and began to clash his arm-blades with the foe's blade: Burai panted as he tried not to submit to the pain.

"Y-you coward…!" Burai hissed.

"Heh, heh, heh… You spoke with such mighty and yet you fell for a trick I'd just used on that puppet! How's this agony like? It must be spreading all across of you… It's awakening the hatred and the desire for revenge… The anger must be burning inside of you… You will entrust yourself to those… And when you that'll be the end of you… I'll surrender your neck to my Lord! Mwah, hah, hah, hah!"

"S-shit…!"

"Burai! Pull out!" Omega ordered through the radio.

"R-roger…! Let's get away, Laplace!"

" _Ga… Ru_ …!"

Burai and Laplace left the area while Assassin Shinobi helped Phantom Black stand up and lean on him: both warped back inside of the manor's living room and undid their transformations: Hyde sat down on one of the armchairs while Shinobi stood in front of him waiting for orders.

"Water!" Hyde ordered.

"Roger!"

He rushed out of the room while Hyde groaned and tried to shake off the pain: Phantom merely hovered to the right and made no comment yet he wasn't too impressed.

"By the blood of Blake! I'll have them regret such humiliation! But at least I proved to that damned Solo that he's not as almighty and invincible as he claims to be! That should put the man out of commission for a few days at the least… One eyesore less!"

"Hum. Maybe." Phantom wasn't so confident.

Shinobi came back carrying a glass jar and a couple of glasses atop a wooden tray: he placed both on the table and served water into both: he gave Hyde one of the glasses and he eagerly drank while Shinobi pulled up the balaclava to expose his neck, jaw and mouth: he slowly drank the water as well.

"Huff. I feel better… And sleepy!"

"No wonder. It's 2AM, Hyde. In case you hadn't realized."

"Thought it was 11PM! Fine! I'll go rest and tomorrow we'll get ready for the next stage of my new plan!"

"Roger."

Hyde walked out of the living room while Shinobi refilled his glass with more water: he let out a sigh of relief and pulled down the balaclava before he sat in the armchair.

"If you wanna rest then go ahead. This guy and I can take care of keeping an eye out. Doesn't look like he'll argue."

"Sure… Fua~h… Wake me up at 7AM."

"Fine. Oh well. Let's start patrolling…"

08:58 AM (Japan Time)…

"… This room is sound-proof, right, Blood?"

"Yeah. This is why I asked you to meet me here."

"Of course."

"It's not like we don't trust WAXA and your pals but… The possibility that word of the "other front" could spread and some might try to abuse of this tech cannot be overlooked."

"Obviously. Hyde already attempted to do that."

Subaru and Blood Shadow were talking inside of a metallic room somewhere: it had a couple of portable chairs which both were using to sit, some cardboard boxes, and nothing else.

The walls, floor and ceiling were bare the only light was a couple of fluorescent tubes set in the ceiling.

Blood Shadow had removed his helmet to reveal that his face was identical to Subaru's and that his eyes' irises were a mix of red and golden.

"Well. As I told you… We settled the score with Virus. In the midst of that another subject got involved… They had a pending score with Virus but it was more of a pride thing than anything else. For the time being we haven't taken action because we lack hard, decisive proof of them being dangerous… We're keeping an eye out because they're the type that will use any means to achieve their goals."

"I see."

"We found "him" there too… Boss managed to talk with him and decided to let him loose since his cruelty and all was just a mask to meet with Virus' expectations of him… He swore he wouldn't appear near us or them anymore and insofar has kept his word. I don't doubt he'll stick to it. The world is wide, after all. He's free to go anywhere he wants to."

"At least we prevented a tragedy. Maybe he could've succumbed to the pressure and gotten into a depression even."

"Yeah. I totally agree."

"So? Anything else?"

"Hmmm… We tracked down all of Virus' assets and possessions just in case but didn't find anything he left behind to annoy us in the future. Insofar, that is. Just in case we're keeping an eye out for that possibility as well."

"Yeah. It doesn't harm to do so. We can't take the man lightly. This morning we saw that even Hyde and Shinobi can turn deadly when cornered… Akatsuki – san convinced Burai to take a 5-day break until we make sure he doesn't develop infections from that cut. The cyber-armor can absorb most of it but you get a scar on your real flesh nevertheless like what happened to Jack."

"Speaking of him, are you keeping an eye on him?"

"Of course. _Sensei_ is also trying to keep him controlled. He tries his best but he still has trouble with anger management. Can't be helped. No – one's perfect yet…" Subaru sighed.

"I know. Well, regarding the guys on the "other front"… Morale is pretty high insofar. The 3 guys who Virus kidnapped and had tortured emerged pretty well despite all… Well. There are, of course, some sequels… It's not that they get depressed, just that…"

"They developed an accentuate masochism?"

"That's it. They try their best to hide it but sometimes they can't help to ask their partners to have sex with them."

"Do they also seek pain in battles and all?"

"Sometimes. They could easily dodge a novice's attack but they purposely let it hit them because they want some dose of pain that makes them feel good. They don't show it on public, of course, just pretend that they're getting too confident and they lower the guard often. They don't lose in purpose, though, so it's not like it calls for much attention."

"And thus the warriors of the Universal balance shall be visited by specters from the grand sages of all times and…" A voice rang out from a nearby interphone.

"Sheesh. Sigma told Dragon – san the room was in use and he incited him to start one of his "proverbs" through the interphone." Blood Shadow complained.

"Huff."

"Hey. Dragon. What are you doing here? This is the sound-proof room, you know. It's not a storeroom." Omega called out from nearby.

"The guidance of Master Confucius told the humble cook that there would be Lords of the grand steeps reunited here and they sought advice from a humble disciple and…" The man named "Dragon" calmly replied.

"HUH? Lords of the grand steeps? Dragon… This is the 23rd century, you know? It's not the 13th century, see?"

"A humble cook is aware of such yet Master Confucius…"

"Hold on there. I'm not saying Master Confucius wasn't a very wise man but I fail to see why you assume there'd still be lords of the grand steeps… I know the Mongolians and such live in the steeps and all but… There are no Mongolians here, you know."

"Is that so? Maybe the humble disciple that I am made a mistake in the interpretation of the words of Master Confucius. Were that to be the case, I shall return to my humble duties. Maybe the sages of all ages shall visit the Ancient God of Destruction and…"

"Oh come on! I dunno where you got the idea to begin with but I'm no Ancient God of Destruction! I know that imposter once mocked me calling me that but I never said I'm that!"

"Is that so? Then maybe I mistook you with your brother living in the Temple of Xi-Jing-Mang and…"

"I have no brothers, Dragon… I'm a robot, you know! A machine! And I know that I no lookalike or copy or spin-off."

"Is that so? Then maybe I mistook you with your venerable golden statue in the Sanctuary of Qang-Jen-Shang and…"

"As far as I know I have no statue in any sanctuary, Dragon. I was only built like 5, 6 years ago."

"But didn't the Lord of Time and Space take inspiration in the statue I just mentioned?"

"Boss? Lord of Time and Space? W-well, that's… I don't know. Try asking him but… Be discrete. He doesn't like grand titles and all, see."

"Whoa. Dragon – san's got a grasp of things. Doesn't he?" Subaru whistled in surprise.

"Yeah. I expected him to be always immersed in the lessons by Confucius and other Chinese philosophers and spiritualists but it'd seem he's gotten a grasp of what can Boss actually do. Like I'd told you… This HQ itself can also skim the time-space back and forth but ever since Kiboyama – kun started living here we're using the portal machines for that purpose. We've got one in that Bermuda base which serves because it's a very discrete location." Blood Shadow admitted.

"Ah, it's you guys. Thought it was Boss and Tabuu." Omega called out through the interphone.

"Yes, sir. I was updating Subaru – kun on the "other front". I got Boss' permission as well, sir."

"Alright. No problem. I made sure there's no – one else close by. Insofar we hadn't said anything to Dragon about our goings and comings through time-space but it'd seem he's eventually realized. Even though he doesn't have a Hunter – VG or any similar device that tells him the year and day of the month…" Omega whispered.

"Maybe it'd be more practical to come in instead?"

"Good idea."

The interphone shut down as Omega opened the slightly heavy steel door and stepped inside before making sure to shut it.

"Better. Nevertheless… I don't think Boss used any ancient statue as basis for my design."

"Now that you mention it, sir… I recall that during a system inspection I found a folder protected with a password labelled "Ultimate's blueprints"… It would seem your development code-name was "Ultimate", sir. Similar to how "N" used development code-names for their machines as well, sir." Blood Shadow recalled.

"Oh, really? Must've overlooked it. I've done plenty of system inspections myself over the years too. Maybe I mistook it with being stuff related to some little-known game, comic or such."

"Speaking of system inspections, sir…"

"Yeah. War – Rock and Moon Disaster are still shut in different folders under several layers of security. It couldn't be helped, when they teamed up they made the whole town go mad with their silly "extravaganzas" and crappy mash-ups. That's why we gave you, Subaru, a program that allows you to do "DH" on your own like us or Solo. Ushijima's also using one because Ox is still under repair and inspection to make sure that "black pain" hasn't triggered any secondary effects on his body."

"I know, sir. I gave him plenty of chances to improve his behavior, but… When we ran into trouble he could be serious but he's always been too hot-blooded and impatient. And sneaky! He used Dad as a pretense to hang around me and impose me a reason to have to help him out… It turned out he knew important stuff yet…" Subaru sighed.

"Yeah. Oh well. We've decided on a slight change of plans. Instead of waiting for them to show up together… We'll strike them at once on both fronts. Tabuu will handle one and you use the Battle Cards with his ability to take care of the others. First we'll have to beat them up and weaken them so that they can't resist. Tabuu will handle the behemoth. He's readied a "cage" to trap them inside of it. You and the others will handle Hyde and Shinobi. We'll also cage them so that they can't escape."

"Understood, sir." Both nodded in understanding.

"As for Shinobi… Death penalty was abolished time ago so he'll surely be placed on imprisonment for life. Guess Hyde will be given a similar treatment given all of his thefts, destruction and such. But let's not get confident either. Those two could pull something desperate that could make our plans backfire for all we know."

"Seeing what they can do…" Subaru shrugged.

"Yeah. Let's hope they don't try to turn the nearby city into a battlefield and force us to fight from house to house like in a war."

"Exactly. That's why we're going to cage them and impede that. I'm going to finish up the details with Boss and Akatsuki. Later."

Omega left the room while Subaru and Blood Shadow sat back on the chairs: both remained silent and the atmosphere had become heavier.

 _I'll prove to you villains that the power of "bonds" is infinite! Your arrogance will be your downfall. How fitting!_


	7. Chapter 7: Deception

**Chapter 7: Deception**

09:19 AM (Japan Time), Sunday March the 13th…

"… Welcome! Welcome, welcome, welcome~!"

"Hello, Nangoku – san."

"I think we hadn't met before, sir. I am Suzuka. Nice to meet you, sir."

"Suzuka – chan, is it? Welcome! And you were… Wait, let me recall… Sofia – chan!"

"Wrong, sir. Hibiki, sir. Hibiki Misora."

"Ah! Crap! Sorry, Misora – chan! When I get absorbed in my surfing videos then I end up mixing everyone's names up…"

"So… You said that there's an exclusive offer today through the news bulletin, sir…"

"Ah yes! Yes, yes, yes! There indeed is!"

Misora and Suzuka stepped into the Big Wave store: Nangoku looked up from a holographic display showing him and some other men and women riding on surf tables and challenging some huge waves.

"Good morning! Ah. Hello, Misora – chan, Suzuka – chan."

"Why, it's Subaru – kun & company. You also got the email?"

"Yeah. Looked interesting so we decided to drop by…"

"But I fear we'll have to bear with one of his surfing tales before he tells us what the offer is about."

Subaru, Tsukasa and Kiboyama came into the store: Nangoku was rewinding the video footage and suddenly looked annoyed at something: Subaru deduced he wouldn't tell them what the offer was about immediately.

"Say… Where's the Lord of the Graves?"

"Excuse us? Lord of the Graves? Who's that?" Subaru frowned.

"That demon from Hell you always dragged around, Barosu – kun."

"Barosu? Who's that? I'm Subaru, sir!"

"Ah, sorry! I mixed you up with one of the surf club buds."

"I don't remember dragging any demon but…"

"Huh? That blue thing with jaws wasn't a demon?"

"Of course not. That's my Wizard, War – Rock."

"Ah, is that so? Sorry, I'm a bit annoyed…"

"We can see that. What happened?" Tsukasa asked.

"Jimmy the Rocky!"

"And who would that be?" Misora asked.

"The guy who beat me at the Big Surf Contest 5 days ago!"

"You'd won it last time?" Kiboayama guessed.

"I've been champ for 5 years! And now this guy come out of nowhere beats me! Where'd the guy learn that technique? Those movements aren't normal! I suspected he cheated but the referees didn't agree with me…!"

"Maybe your level of skill has lowered? Or maybe you felt too confident and lowered the guard?" Suzuka suggested.

"Maybe… Nope, that can't be the case!"

"Excuse us, but what about today's offer?"

"Today's offer?"

"Don't tell us you already forgot."

"Today's offer…? Ah, yeah… I was talking about it a min ago… Thanks for reminding, Lola – chan."

"Lola? Excuse me, sir, my name is Suzuka."

"Oh crap! That's a pal from the surf club too!" He slapped his forehead.

"Oh boy." The group sighed.

"Ah yes! Yes! I remember now. Today's offer is a very exclusive offer! Indeed! Only a genius would come up with it!"

"Is that so?" Subaru looked skeptical.

"Indeed! A muse whispered into my ears this night!"

"A muse…?" Misora turned skeptical, too.

"But before that… I need advice!"

"If it's about surfing then I'm afraid we won't be able to help, Nangoku – san. None of us have ever tried it out." Kiboyama warned.

"Huh? But wasn't one of you the Sub-Champ of Damako Surfing?" He suddenly frowned.

"Damako? Don't you mean Kodama?"

"Oh crap! That's the name of my cousin!"

"No, sir. None of us are members of Kodama Surfing, sir."

"Is that so? Then who was it…? Ah! That small kid, yes!"

"Hasami Chiyokichi – kun?" Subaru guessed.

"Wasn't that the host of the FM Cancer?" Tsukasa asked Subaru in a whisper.

"Yeah. He can use wave attacks so I thought that maybe…"

"Hasami? Not Kousuke?"

"As far as I know his surname is Hasami, sir."

"Could've sworn his name was Shuuya."

"No, sir. His name is Chiyokichi, sir."

"Crap. I need to put an order to names. Normally my pal would help me out but I sent him to undergo monthly maintenance since he had some odd glitches as of late." Nangoku sighed.

"Well, sir… I am sorry if I sound persistent, yet… We came here to know the details of the offer, sir."

"We don't intend to offend you, sir, but we didn't come to listen to your bad moods, sir."

"I know, I know! It's just that the organizers finally compiled the footage and just sent it to me and I was eager to try to figure out the newbie's trick! I got a mail by one of my buds, too…"

"And?"

"She suspects the guy from having doped!"

"Doped? Does that work on surf too?" Tsukasa wondered.

"Sure thing! I'm sure he used some kind of adrenaline-like stimulant to boost his reflexes and speed…! These movements aren't natural to begin with! I'm going to ask for an official enquiry!"

"I see. So… What about the offer, sir?"

"Ah yeah! Well! Sorry for the wait."

He stood up and shut down the screen while clearing his throat: he drank some pineapple and grapes juice he had on a glass cup to the right of the desk and then smiled.

"Surprise! All Level 3 Battle Cards have a 50% discount!"

"Whoa!" Everyone was surprised.

"Great! I needed some to improve my Folder." Kiboyama admitted.

"Same here. The Viruses are getting stronger as of late and we need some more firepower to beat them."

"Hmmm… Maybe a few ones wouldn't hurt…" Misora looked like she was unsure whether to buy them or not.

"Guess that." Suzuka shrugged.

"I made sure to stock on them so you needn't worry about that! Buy as many as you need!" Nangoku encouraged.

"Good!"

"Hmmm… Grand Wave 3 and Jet Attack 3… I guess I'll take both."

"Huh? Another mail… Go on buying, I'll check it out…"

Nangoku sat on the chair again and opened the Hunter-VG's menu again: he began to read a mail and got annoyed again.

"The bloody…!"

"What's the matter, sir?"

"That Jimmy guy! He's sending me a midnight duel challenge! Jerk!"

"Midnight duel? Is there such a thing in surfing?"

"Sure is! I've done it from time to time…"

"But isn't it dangerous? Beaches at night are pitch-black, the sea's colder and there are no lifesavers!" Misora argued.

"There are always two witnesses and they have a lifeboat ready to rescue any of us if we have trouble. They also have aerial drones equipped with IR cameras too. It's not like any of us want to stake our lives just to win a surf duel." Nangoku calmly explained.

"Ah. I see."

"Stealth Laser 3… Hmmm…"

"What's the matter, Tsukasa – kun?" Kiboyama asked.

"It's nothing, just that… I feel like it's not appropriate. Attacking in a sneak manner is typical of those guys but it's not my style. Nah. I'll rather have a Flash Spear 3. I'll come from the front."

"Wha~t? What a bloody…!" Nangoku complained again.

"What's the matter, sir? Is he mocking you, sir?" Suzuka deduced.

"Yes, you're right! GJFNCJHTGFHABH!" He growled something undecipherable.

"Shuri Shuriken 3… Could be useful." Misora decided.

"You know what? Get lost, Jimmy! I'm not accepting any challenges from you which reek of ploy to humiliate me! I'll soon have exposed your true nature under that mask and exaggerated muscles!"

"Huh? The Hunter – VG's ringing… Luna – chan? Huff." Misora activated the display and sighed.

"More paranoia?" Suzuka sighed.

"Guess that. Hi, Luna – chan… What's up?"

"You're being very sneaky as of late!" Luna suddenly told her without bothering to say "hi".

"Sneaky? In what sense?"

"You're skipping a lot of classes!"

"Huff. Luna – chan! I've never been a student of Kodama Middle, you know?"

"HUH? Really?"

"Really." The others affirmed.

"What. It's plain Subaru – kun. And here I thought my beloved Rock Man – sama was patrolling my house to keep it clean from kitties!" Luna shrugged and looked bored.

"I do what the Satella Police tell me to do, _iinchou_. I'm not here to be your bellboy." Subaru sighed.

"They lack passion!"

"Police are supposed to be rational and make rational decisions."

"Hmpf! Then quit those folk and I'll grant you passion."

"I'm not interested."

"WHAT? I knew it! You kitties! Get your claws off my fiancée!"

"F-fiancée? Oh come on." Subaru groaned, annoyed.

"LUNA~!" Her mother yelled close by.

"YIKES!"

"Stop saying nonsense!" She scolded.

"B-but…!"

"No "buts" either!"

"He's my beloved…!"

"He's not "yours"! He's a person, he belongs to no – one! And stop treating him like he and Rock Man are separate people when they are the same! And you know it!"

"HMPF!" She played the offended.

"You're mature enough to realize that. Denying the truth won't change anything. One day you'll have to face it head-on. And you won't be able to run away."

"Kuh…!" She hissed.

The call abruptly ended and the group of five sighed: Nangoku had come out of the store for a moment to answer a call and they could see that he was getting annoyed and agitated as he paced around the square's swing: they resumed looking at the list of Battle Cards.

"Huh? Mail from Sigma – san…" Kiboyama was surprised.

"What does he say?" Tsukasa asked.

"No big deal. Just that he's finished his patrol and swapped with Blood who's started patrolling."

"It'd seem those two have been quiet since yesterday. They haven't spoken to each other either… Maybe it's a new ploy to show confidence… Problem is the other front. They haven't shown up yet. Maybe they're avoiding the Wave Roads altogether." Subaru grumbled.

"Impatience won't solve things, Subaru – kun." Misora warned.

"I know, Misora – chan. It's just that… I want to put an end to this, once and for all. It's my responsibility."

"You needn't burden that by yourself, you know. We're here to support you too." Kiboyama reminded him.

"Thank you."

"It's not like you could predict things would turn out like this."

"Good point."

"Sheesh. Now she's sent me a string of messages. Luna – chan, can't you be a bit more rational?" Misora sighed.

"Really. As a fellow girl I understand that, being raised with all those tales of princes and princesses, you'd like to believe they really exist but one must accept those are fantasies." Suzuka sighed as well.

"Yeah. As long as you don't overcome and admit those you won't grow, you won't be able to move on forward."

"By the way, Harp isn't around?" Subaru asked.

"No. She wanted to go stroll around."

"Ice had to replace the staff manager since he was experiencing some odd glitches and had to be sent to AMAKEN for inspection."

"Speaking of AMAKEN… Utagai – san hasn't been involved in the patrolling as of late, right?" Tsukasa recalled.

"We'd liked of him to but… His superstitious behavior gets on the way too often. As for Wolf Forest… He gets hot-blooded and leaves himself open to attacks too open. Crown Thunder does cooperate but he relies too much on those Viruses he controls and forgets to improve his own body's abilities…"

"… Sorry." Tsukasa suddenly muttered as he looked away: his expression was a mix of sadness and guilt.

"Huh? Sorry for what?" Subaru frowned.

"… If I could have the courage to "Denpa – Henkan" again now that Hikaru doesn't exist anymore… I could help you out and yet… I'm being a bother…"

"Wait, Tsukasa – kun! I never said you had to do that! Did someone tell you that or what?"

"T-that's…"

"Maybe it was Omega on the last month when his "serious mode" was annoyed the whole time and obsessed over his pride to the point he lashed out at everyone and called them useless or things like that as if we weren't doing our best already." Misora deduced.

"…Yeah." Tsukasa admitted.

"Oh come on. Omega – san wasn't being rational back then. I'm sure that Boss doesn't want you to do something you wouldn't like to do. You needn't worry about it. You and Storm make a powerful combination already." Subaru patted his shoulders.

"Really…?"

"Really."

"…Thank you…"

"Here, a handkerchief."

"Thank you…"

Tsukasa blew his nose and rubbed his eyes to wipe out the tears.

"Ah. Her mom caught her on the act and sent me a message apologizing for Luna – chan's behavior. I'm going to thank her."

"… Sorry I took so long. I needed to have some air to cool down. And I had to put that guy in the incoming call rejection list." Nangoku walked back in and sighed.

"If you don't feel like it then we're going back. You could take the day off and resume this campaign tomorrow." Subaru suggested.

"Good idea. I think I'll do that. Nerves won't help me. Oh, by the way. Did you meet Loops?"

"Loops? No, sir. A friend of yours, sir?" Misora asked, surprised.

"Another of my cousins. I think he's working at that big lab… What was the name again? "Amai ken"? "Sweet Sword"?"

"Ah, well. That was close, sir. AMAKEN. It's short for "Amachi Kenkyuujo", "Amachi Labs"…"

"Ah, I see. I think he's one of the front desk employees."

"Then maybe we've crossed paths since we've been there often but I'm afraid we never introduced each other."

"I see. By the way, did you know? There's a yellow coconut at Shiisa Island, see?"

"HUH? A yellow coconut, sir?" Kiboyama asked, surprised.

"Yeah. A surf bud told me."

"Maybe it's some new stand which wants to sell something as "tropical" or "southern"?" Suzuka wondered.

"Could be." Subaru shrugged.

"And that there's a rumbling lion sleeping on the tennis court of those TV studios…"

"Rumbling lion? In the Okudama Studios' tennis court? I've never heard of anything like that. Maybe it's part of some new series?"

"Dunno. That same surf bud told me that a couple days ago."

"Maybe it's an attempt to make up an "urban legend"."

"Could be. For all we know."

"… I feel a bit better. Sorry for the scare." Nangoku looked like he'd managed to calm down.

"Don't push yourself, sir."

"I know, young man, I know… It's just that… It's hard to contain yourself when there are smug types like those who believe they're above everyone else in the world just because they've got looks and won a mere surf championship…" He began to scroll down a list of Battle Cards possibly to check their stock numbers.

"Did he look like the type who expected a lot of fan-girls to crowd around him and adulate him?" Misora asked.

"Oh yes! Sure was! There were three or four girls shrieking and acting like he was some star come outta a film…"

"Guessed as much. Oh well. Let's see… I've got 5 types insofar. Maybe I can add another one or two. They might come in handy." Misora checked the cart's contents.

"Maybe I should add some Flame-attribute Battle Cards to counter types who use Grass-attribute Battle Cards." Tsukasa muttered.

"I'd rather have one or two of each attribute to be able to counter attacks aiming for an elemental weakness."

"That's a good strategy, too."

"… Ah. It would seem maintenance on my Wizard will soon be over and they'll send him to me around 8 PM. Good, good."

"Huh? "Lobsters & shrimps will beat eel & salmon!"… It reeks of Sigma – san's lame humor sense." Tsukasa rolled his eyes.

"Yeah. Omega – san has been serious as of late because he's feeling the tension too so I don't think it's him." Subaru rubbed his chin.

"Maybe it's his way of shaking off tension."

"Better that than Moon Disaster and War Rock!" Misora shrugged.

"Oh yes. Truly."

"My store rides on wave~! And circles the world atop the wave~!"

12:54 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Ahem, ahem."

"Who…? Nobody but authorized staff can come into this office!"

"I am the new ruler of Austria! Hyde the First!"

"HUH? Hyde the First?"

"Indeed! As the descendant of the mighty House of Hyde I have come to bring Austria back to its grand glory! Hear me out, citizens! Do not let your neighbors dictate what you must say! Rise!"

"We're not interested. If you want to start a political party with that project then feel free to and try to campaign to become the next Prime Minister."

"WHAT?"

Some people had been gathered in an office somewhere decorated with the Austrian flag and some objects typical of Austria when Hyde suddenly appeared on the entrance: he was grinning and looked very confident but the people that were reunited around a table weren't impressed in the very least.

"Security! Lead this man out."

"Yes, Mr. Ambassador."

"You traitor! The punishment for betraying the Fatherland is DEATH! Denpa – Henkan! Hyde, On Air!"

Hyde suddenly transformed and the ambassador along with the other members of the diplomatic staff stood up, surprised: Phantom Black roared and used his "Phantom Claw" to grip the ambassador.

"Capital punishment to you traitors to the Fatherland!"

"Objection! Hrah!"

"Damn you! Akatsuki!"

"Satella Police here! We'll escort you to safety!"

"R-roger!"

"Bah! I was looking for a guinea-pig, anyway!"

Acid Ace suddenly appeared and used his blade to cut the Phantom Claw: Phantom Black focused on him while the Commandos came in and helped evacuate the embassy staff: Phantom Black suddenly snickered and snapped his right hand's thumb and index finger: the sword of "Berserk" suddenly appeared inches in front of his face and he grabbed it with the right hand: energy bolts jumped off it and began to run across his body: Phantom Black roared and suddenly formed a shockwave that knocked Acid Ace away while breaking or knocking over several pieces of furniture and decoration.

"Whack! I thought it was a prop but it'd seem it's the real one! And we had it under our custody ever since the Second Battle of Omicron! We retrieved it back then!" He grumbled.

"Analysis suggests it is the real one, Shidou."

"Oh, that's just _great_. Where was it kept at, anyway?"

"It would seem it ended up in the "requisitioned material" storeroom at floor 33 for some time but was recently sent to Shiisa Island to be part of a new exhibit held in Shiisa Castle." Acid calmly detailed.

"And Hyde caught word of it and stole it from the exhibit, huh? How did the guy get past our surveillance?"

"Maybe Assassin Shinobi fooled us with a double. That would explain why they weren't interacting as of late."

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah! POWE~RRRR! This is the power of the OOPArt! This time around I'll make a good use of it! To crush EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOUR BONE~SSSS!"

"Crap. We need a better location… Catch me, old man!"

"OLD MAN? ME? HOW DARE YOU!"

Acid Ace taunted his enemy as he warped to a Wave Road atop the Austrian Embassy building: Phantom Black hissed and hit the Wave Road with his cane: bolts of electricity jumped off it and headed towards Acid Ace but he placed a "Gorodran" Virus (which dropped "Inazuma Head 3" Battle Cards) to act as a lightning rod: the Virus absorbed the bolts and shot them back at Phantom Black but he covered himself with the cloak to bounce them off again: the augment attack defeated the Virus.

"This isn't going to be easy. I've got that hunch."

"Shidou. Let us be constructive."

"I know, I know!"

"I am keeping an eye out on the surroundings but insofar there is nothing that indicates the presence of Assassin Shinobi in a 25 meter radius. Yet he could be waiting outside of this radius."

"Huff. Lovely!"

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah! Look at this plebs, cowering before the power of the House of Hyde!"

"Oh, sure. And you're using a Mu OOPArt to begin with. By the way, did they ever tell you that you're uglier than a mummy?"

" _Verdammt nochmal_!" Phantom Black hissed in German.

"Let me guess. "Damn you!"… Right?"

"Correct."

"Phantom Slash! DIE~!"

Phantom Black formed the tornado but this time around its body was charged with electrical bolts circling around it: the tornado quickly advanced while pulling in anything loose close by: Acid Ace formed several Count Bomb 3 and began to fling them towards the tornado: their explosions began to open holes in the electrical barrier so Acid Ace shot a charged shot that hit the chest but Phantom Black wasn't affected: he suddenly warped while leaving the tornado advancing towards him and reappeared behind Acid Ace: he aimed the end of his cane's main body at Acid Ace's back as a thin needle spread from there: it extended and headed for the target but Acid suddenly materialized and formed a round shield of steel that made the needle shatter upon impact.

"Sheesh! You'll regret that!"

"Oh, sure. Like I'll do. The power of the OOPArt isn't that much of a deal in the end, huh? Guess that's because you're unable to assimilate with its "mind" as Subaru did years ago."

"Hmpf! I don't need something as pointless at that! It's but a tool of war!"

"Huh? Strange… Yes, keep me informed. Yes, thank you…" Acid suddenly replied to an incoming transmission.

"What's up? Did Shinobi show up somewhere else?"

"No. According to the officer who went to check, the Berserk sword is still on the exhibit. Close analysis of its materials and all make it clear that it's the real one. It would seem Hyde has a replica."

"What? But I had Shinobi steal it from the exhibit!" Phantom Black frowned.

"Security footage shows Assassin Shinobi boldly breaking in and stealing it yet... It would seem that an elderly man showed up shortly afterwards and placed another one where it originally was at. The officers are working on trying to ID this man and figure out where he came from and how he came in without triggering alarms like the thief did."

"An old man? Strange. Who could it be? And, say… It's like that man knew that Shinobi would steal it so he placed the replica and then left the real one instead of merely taking it back with him… Does that mean that that man has no use for it? Not even to sell it on the black market in exchange for money?" Acid Ace was puzzled as well.

"By the blood of Vienna! Now it turns out that this replica releases strong power when turned on but that's all it does?"

"Seems like it. I did have my suspicions, though. It didn't have the "smell" of something made in Mu but rather current technology. It's a 45% accurate replica, though, in terms of power volume." Phantom explained to him.

"Sheesh. So we've been deceived by some old man! Fine! I'll go find that old man and figure out who's working for! And once I do I'll make them pay for their humiliation! _Lebewohl!_ "

Phantom Black warped away while tossing the replica on the Wave Road: Acid Ace picked it up and examined it from several angles: he gasped when he spotted a small mark near the end of the sheath's backside surface.

"This mark…! The "Secret Empire"!" He recognized it.

"But Virus Daemon is dead."

"He could have accomplices and have left instructions on what to do if he died or got caught…" Acid Ace suggested.

"We cannot discard the possibility."

"Sorry for the delay, I was on the middle of an EVA with Kir Osh and rushed here ASAP… Where's Hyde?" Omega caught up with them.

"Fled. Turns out someone of the "Secret Empire" made this imitation and he's gone to find the culprit." He handed it over.

"Sheesh. Anaya's leftovers again!" Omega grumbled.

"Or maybe Anaya herself, even. Remember how she was poking her nose and keeping a close eye on Subaru and Hibiki back when the Mu Continent Crisis. Maybe she devised this as bait for some trap but it ended up being unused so it ended up in the hands of someone else along the way. And that someone else could be a grunt of the org." Vadous pointed out over the radio.

"Maybe some of them didn't really know who their employer was but were used to being hired for small jobs since they were from outside the org and thus there'd be no records of those jobs. In short, we'd be talking about a "cutout"." Acid suggested.

"Cutout, huh? Sure, that's gotta be it. That old man leaked the info so that Hyde would come for it but wanted Hyde to be humiliated hence why he swapped the blades. Feels like something Virus would order, yeah. Seeing how he manipulated you guys and Hyde to achieve his goals…"

"Sheesh. You've got a point, man. Fine. Let's bring this to the HQ for further analysis. Everything OK down there, Ryuusuke?"

"Yeah, Akatsuki. We've been keeping an eye out for Shinobi but nothing's happened. The Ambassador asked if Hyde was really an Austrian citizen and when we replied "yes" he began to curse in German. Guess he'll have Hyde pay for the new furniture."

"Undoubtedly. Oh well. While we analyze this you could begin to dig into the underground for clues, no?"

"Sure thing. I'll keep you informed. Later."

 _A leftover of the "Secret Empire", huh… One headache more. SHEESH!_


	8. Chapter 8: Pain

**Chapter 8: Pain**

13:13 PM (Japan Time), Sunday March the 13th…

"… Time to wake up!"

 _UGAH! What a blow on my balls…!_

"Nothing like a dose of pain to wake one up. Heh, heh, heh!"

 _T-this voice…! Don't tell me that…!_

"Starting to catch up, eh? Good, good… Else it wouldn't be fun."

 _Shit. How did the guy…?_

"Abracadabra! Mwah, hah, hah."

 _Sheesh…! Magic…? Wait…! Back then…!_

"Not enough? Here's another one!"

 _UGAH! The pain…! It's making the sleepiness vanish all of a sudden…!_

Subaru noticed a blow on his balls which shook off some sleepiness: he began to open his eyes and try to fix his blurry field of vision as an all-too-familiar voice rang out from close by.

"Heh, heh, heh. This is the start of the Eternal Hell! Show off some body for the cameras… You'll soon be ostracized by that egoist "society" you've been trying to "protect" in vain… And then you will know the true despair and hopelessness!"

Subaru finally awakened and tried to move his arms and legs but they were held in place by the wrists and ankles by metallic restrains: the arms and legs were spread in an "X" formation.

His body was leaning against a wooden-made "X" shaped cross.

He looked at the rest of his body and grumbled when he saw that he had some black leather bands running down his naked body that formed a set of 5 "diamonds" over his torso and until the waist.

Two bands ran vertically from over his shoulders until they began to form the diamonds to then continue downwards and made a thick leather bag tightening his balls: a thin leather band with an opening over the ass ran over it and then opened into the two bands that climbed his back.

He also had a thick black leather collar closed around his neck.

His mouth had a ball-gag inserted on it that muffled his voice.

He also felt a thick black leather vibrator stuffed inside of his ass which wasn't moving yet.

 _Tsukasa – kun and Gino – kun got caught, too? But how?_

He saw that Tsukasa and Kiboyama were in the same situation as him: all of them were spread in a 180º arch inside of a square room made of bricks and lit by candles placed there and there: Tsukasa looked panicked while Kiboyama was angered.

Kurayami was standing on the middle of the room: he wore black leather pants along with boots and had his chest exposed.

He'd also removed the helmet and shades to show how his face was similar to Subaru's but appealed to be a few years older than him: his eyes' irises were red and glowed with malice while he displayed a smug grin on his face.

Kurayami held a Hunter-VG on his right hand and was glancing at a set of spherical, hovering cameras which were apparently recording the scene.

"You didn't see this one coming, eh?" He sneered.

 _Damn. I knew they were aiming for this but I thought that will all of the security around us they'd have it hard to pull it off… Let devil bite me if this room is a basement. I'm sure it is else Boss and the others would've stormed this place already. This isn't an improvised thing like they did back when they cooperated with Hyde… It's like Virus Daemon… A planned crime…!_

"It'd seem someone's already despairing… Good, good. Feel the despair and the fear… I'll suck them off you and become stronger… Show me some tears too, Futaba… Heh, heh, heh." Kurayami sneered as he glanced at Tsukasa.

 _You bastard! Don't make fun of Tsukasa – kun! He was kidnapped by a mafia after the Meteor G crisis and "auctioned" in the Chinese underground! He spent over a year tortured by a Chinese mafia boss and abused of! He only managed to survive because Hikaru took his place and experienced the whole of the pain and abuse on his place…!_

"Been a while, eh? Ever since Wizard City… That was a good way to get you started into this stuff, Kiboyama… You've grown up some neat muscles, too… Good, good. This is what the audience wants to see! Please them!" Kurayami sneered next.

 _Shut up._

"Heh, heh, heh… Hoshikawa! Last time I didn't have enough time to savor you out since Ka and that Shinobi rascal also had their turns but today I'll make you experience real BDSM… Or maybe there's no need to. I guess Virus Daemon already took care of that. Hmpf. Too bad the rascal blew himself up, else I'd been able to get some tips off the guy."

 _That guy was dangerous, more dangerous than this guy… He'd already abused of countless guys like me in that damned "Palace"… And bragged about it, too… Makes you wonder how can some humans end up being so mad...!_

"Heh, heh, heh… Good, good. Let's spice this up."

He rummaged inside of a wooden box placed atop a table in the middle of the room and drew some vibrators with a thin black plastic spear aiming downwards and which had four leather bands linked to a small collar: he grabbed one and walked over to Subaru.

 _Damn. I know what that is._

Kurayami gripped his cock and rubbed it to harden it before he expanded the urethra and inserted the spear inside: he made sure it went all the way in before closing the collar around the base of the cock to secure it into place: he sneered and walked away to do the same to the other two.

 _This stupid thing will torment the insides of my cock and it won't me let release…! This jerk!_

"Good… Now let's go for the pain…"

 _Shit._

Kurayami drew small metallic clothes pegs which he clipped into Subaru's nipples: he tied them together with a thin chain and added a small weight on the middle of the chain so that it pulled both pegs downwards: Subaru winced and Kurayami sneered as he gripped his jaw with the right hand and examined him from close distance.

"Good, good… Heh, heh, heh. We're almost ready to start the show… Heh, heh, heh…"

 _How the hell did the guy pull this off?_

"This is no illusion, mind you. It's reality!"

 _That much I suspected._

"And a magician never reveals his tricks in front of the audience! Else it lacks grace!"

 _Magician…? Ah! I remember! We were at the Big Wave… Nangoku – san came out to go fetch something… We were about to start paying for the Battle Cards when a blackout ensued… There was a sound and we "sank" into the ground… I then vaguely remember landing in a room somewhere filled with some gas… It must've been sleeping gas and that's why I felt so sleepy and sluggish!_

"Oho. Looks like you're catching up…"

 _Jerk. Must be hacking my brain's chip implant to know what I am thinking of…_

"Exactly! Heh, heh, heh. I'm a mind-reader!"

 _Shut up, you rascal._

"We'll see how long this confidence you have holds on… You'll soon submit to hatred and anger!"

 _Shit. Something tells me the guy means it._

"Alright… Let's get started!"

Kurayami interacted with the Hunter-VG and inputted a few commands: the vibrators each of three prisoners had turned on and began to spin: Subaru was momentarily overwhelmed by the sensation.

 _Damn it! They're set to max speed already!_

"Oho. Futaba is already despairing… Good, good."

Subaru managed to open his eyes and saw how Tsukasa was struggling against the restrains and shaking his head in a wild manner as the vibrators tormented him: Kurayami walked over to him and chuckled aloud.

"Despair! Sink into hopelessness!"

 _Take your dirty hands off my friend, you bastard!_

"Don't be so impatient, Hoshikawa. Your turn comes later. First I'm going to tame this guy here. Heh, heh, heh."

Kurayami opened the pants' zipper and drew his cock which was already hard: he pressed a button on a control panel set right of Tsukasa's cross to make it lift some centimeters up the wall: he moved closer in and stuffed his cock inside of Tsukasa's ass to then begin to move it: Tsukasa gasped and opened his eyes while looking afraid: he began to struggle again while Kurayami pulled the chain of the pegs to inflict pain to him.

 _Coward! Bastard!_

"Hate me all you want, Hoshikawa! You'll only make me more powerful! Heh, heh, heh. Don't worry, Kiboyama… You're next! In the meanwhile enjoy the show!"

 _This damned bastard!_

"Ah. I forgot. Ka is doing the same with Hibiki and the gal's bud too. I'd rather leave women to handle women. Heh, heh, heh."

 _Damn. That's precisely what we were trying to avoid._

"Feeling the despair? Good, good… And even if you try to deny, Futaba… I can see it… The way your body reacts to the pain… You feel a wave of pleasure from the pain! It'd seem that Chinaman and his enforcer trained you well… Even if your alter-ego took your place the body got used to this feeling nevertheless…"

 _Kuh…!_ Subaru inwardly hissed.

"You know I've got a point, don't you, Hoshikawa? You experienced the same with Virus Daemon, too!"

 _Coward! Fight me!_

"Nah. That's outdated. It's better to turn you powerless and have you watch how your precious lovers turn into my slaves."

 _BASTARD!_

"Wasting the energies already? Hmpf. Fine. Do as you like."

 _Sheesh! What's taking them so long?_

"They tossed you away, they got tired of playing bodyguard… You got cast away like broken merchandise!"

 _Do you think I don't know Boss and the others well enough? Of course they didn't do that. You must've come up with some elaborate deception to make them believe nothing's out of place._

"Who knows?"

 _I know, you carbon copy! Defective!_

"What was that?" He stopped and got annoyed.

 _De-fe-c-ti-ve._ He bothered to spell to annoy him further.

"… Hmpf. Fine, you're asking for it."

He stopped raping Tsukasa and picked a cat-o'-nine-tails whip from the wooden box: he walked over to Subaru and began to whip his body with the tool: Subaru hissed but held on as Kurayami struck him several times in a row: Kiboyama was trying to tell Subaru to stop it by shaking his head but Subaru didn't pay heed.

"Hmpf! So sacrificing yourself for the sake of your lovers, huh? Isn't that precious? Worthless." Kurayami scoffed, unimpressed.

 _I don't care what you think, defective!_

"I'M NO DEFECTIVE! DAMN IT!"

He began to swing it faster and hit Subaru over and over again: Subaru merely kept on holding on: Kiboyama was attempting to break free without result at the same time.

"Try all of you want, Kiboyama! Those restrains are made by a pro! A human's strength can't break them! I made sure they're properly installed, too."

 _In the end you're no more than a defective who relies on petty tricks. You're the one who got tossed away by the Mu sages._

"GRRRRR!" Kurayami growled, now pissed off.

 _Hmpf! You're but a dog who barks but doesn't bite. You're pathetic, you've always been! Defective!_

"… Hmpf. Looks like I got carried away somewhat… Taking out my energies on you is boring. Nah. I'll make you suffer pain… But since you can handle psychical pain so well let's see you handle THIS!"

He flung the whip away and went back to the wooden box: he drew some rope which ended in a thick knot made by tying a bundle of rope together: he then headed for Tsukasa again and began to swing it before making it hit his balls from beneath: Tsukasa arched and would've screamed if he didn't have his mouth blocked by the ball-gag: some tears flew off his eyes and Kurayami formed a psychotic grin.

"How's this like? I'll have you sit there and watch your lover suffer until he breaks down! That's what happens when you toy with my pride, Hoshikawa! It's too late to regret it now! Mwah, hah, hah!"

 _BASTARD! COWARD! DAMN YOU! I HATE YOU!_

"Oho. Did you say "I hate you"? So you're finally admitting to it. That you're not free from hatred and anger! What a shameful "hero"! You're no better than Anakin Skywalker! They called him the "fearless hero" and turns out he was haunted by fear! And that he allowed anger and hatred to control him and make him stronger!" He sneered.

 _Damn it…!_

"How's this pain like, Futaba? Refreshing? Overwhelming? Do you want it to end? Too bad, it won't end! I'm the master and you're the slave! I do whatever I want! You've got no rights whatsoever! They taught you that back when you were in China, no? Heh, heh, heh!"

 _Stop it…!_

"Did you say something?"

 _Beat me instead…!_

"Nope! A master never concedes anything to the slaves!"

 _Damn you! Damn you! DAMN YOU~!_

"What, thinking anger will let you break free? Dream on! Anger won't give your body any more muscular strength! About to break down, Futaba? Blame that Kuroban guy for taking out your alter-ego from inside of your head, else the guy would help you out… Wouldn't the guy?"

 _Kuh…! I won't let you do as you please…!_

"Hmpf! And what will you do to stop me, huh? You can't do anything. Nobody's coming to save you."

 _They'll see through your petty deception sooner or later!_

"Obviously. But that won't allow them to find you at once. This is a basement 25 meters below the surface. Enough distance to nullify any of the signals your chip implant is sending out. I did plenty of experiments to make sure of it." Kurayami shrugged.

He stopped hitting Tsukasa who'd fainted and shrugged as he moved towards Kiboyama who gasped and was trying to close his legs in vain: Kurayami grinned and delivered a blow with the knot to his balls: Kiboyama arched.

"Before I keep on with this… Let's try out your hole, too. Heh!"

He pressed the button to lift the cross and stuffed his cock into Kiboyama's ass: Kurayami began to fuck him as he pulled the chain of the pegs to inflict pain to him.

"Heh! I knew it. You're not used to pain like Futaba is. So you're feeling the real pain… Spreading across you… Heh, heh, heh. You're also a miserable guy, too… Getting picked by that King guy to be sent on a suicide mission and ending up being possessed by the mind of an ancient human…" Kurayami mocked him.

Kiboyama directed a glare filled with hatred at him and Kurayami grinned as he took his cock out once he'd released inside of his ass: he resumed beating his balls with the knot.

"There, feeling the overwhelming pain? In time you'll turn this into pleasure and you'll crave it."

Kiboyama directed another glare, less powerful than before, to Kurayami as if to prove he wasn't impressed by his chatter.

"Not impressed? Whatever. In time you'll see that I was right. Heh, heh, heh… Here, we're slacking off… Let's resume!"

Kurayami resumed hitting his balls with the knot and Kiboyama began to struggle as he kept trying to close his legs.

"It's in vain! Your fate is to agonize until you break down! I'll drive you to beyond the limits of flesh and pain!"

 _Stop it already! You sick freak!_

"Hmpf! The same trick doesn't work twice, Hoshikawa! You've asked for this, you brought this into yourself! Regret you earlier taunts! You will be tormented by your "heroism"!"

 _Bullshit!_

"Hmpf! Brag while you can. You'll soon become slave to the pain and you'll BEG for it!"

 _No, you're the one who'll soon shudder in front of Omega – san's power… He's going to turn you into scrap!_

"Kuh…! Guh…!" Kurayami growled.

 _Hmpf! That's the fate of you defectives!_

"Bah! I've got you as hostages!"

 _Who says he'll come alone?_

"Damn. Spoke too fast…!"

 _Hmpf! Tabuu will turn you into stone!_

"Sheesh!"

 _You're cornered! Maybe Kanaya will leak out your location to stall for time and be able to laugh at you?_

"Sheesh! Sounds like something the gal would do!"

 _Hmpf! The "Dark Side" is about betraying each other!_

"Grrrr! I'm not as stupid as Darth Plagueis who underestimated Sidious' ambition! The gal won't catch me by surprise! Time for you to feel the despair and pain! Eat this!"

Kurayami stopped hitting Kiboyama since he'd fainted as well and began to smash Subaru's balls: he inwardly groaned and closed his eyes as he tried to handle the influx of pain.

"You were asking for this! If you're regretting it by now then it's too late! Pain beyond imagination will make you submit to ME!"

 _Like it…will…!_

"Hmpf! Feel the pain! More, more and more PAIN!"

Kurayami began to hit him faster: Subaru struggled but his mind was getting foggy as well as his vision: Kurayami grinned and stopped to stuff his cock into his ass and began to rape him.

"Hmpf! Now you're mine! And after I teach you some more lessons in pain we'll move into the next show! The wooden horse!"

 _Damn…! There's more…?_

"It's the Eternal Hell!"

 _Shut up…!_

"Hmpf! What happened to your "heroism" and all, huh? Turns out it's a load of crap! It's but a lie!"

 _That's not… true…! T-this pain…!_

"Hmpf! Your defenses have shattered… Good, good… The fear will soon creep in… The despair and hopelessness will creep in next… And soon you'll be a prisoner of darkness… You'll be my slave! There! Let's resume the lessons of pain!"

Kurayami released inside of Subaru and took out his cock to resume hitting the balls with the knotted end of the rope: Subaru struggled against the dumbness spreading from his balls to the rest of the body: Kurayami slapped his right cheek and that awakened him.

"Not yet! Not enough pain yet. This is the price you pay for toying with my pride, Hoshikawa!"

 _You've got no… pride…! It's but ego…!_

"Like I care! If I say it's pride then it's pride!"

 _Shut… up…! You're pathetic…! You can't overcome our bonds…!_

"Bonds? Rubbish! All of them! Solo was right! Weaklings gather together to oppress others but when you're alone you're a weakling!"

Subaru suddenly fainted from the accumulated pain: Kurayami scoffed.

"Hmpf. Whatever. The pain has just begun! Mwah, hah, hah…"

15:45 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Welcome!"

"Good afternoon."

"What would you wish?"

"A coke."

"Understood, sir."

"By the way. Did you hear? They say they'll soon alter lettuce to make up _red lettuce_."

"… I see, sir. Please wait a moment, sir."

Vadous, dressed in a businessman style, had come into a bar in a city somewhere: there were a few customers there, too: some were watching a soccer match over the TV and some others were playing _mahjong_ amongst them: Vadous sat in front of the counter and commented something to the barman who reacted to his words.

"… The coke, sir."

"Good."

"What do you need to know, sir?"

"Have you seen this man before?"

Vadous turned on a Hunter – VG and showed him a screen capture from the Shiisa Castle's security footage: a man on his 60s with grayish hair and brown eyes dressed in blue overalls could be seen holding the two "Berserk" swords on his hands.

"Why, yes, I do. Sir. He was here yesterday evening."

"I see. Did he introduce himself?"

"He named himself Mr. Sepia, sir."

"Mr. Sepia, huh… Had he been here before?"

"No, sir. It was the first time. But he knew the password, too. He wanted information on the castle, sir."

"I see. What kind of information?"

"The number of entrances and exits including "unofficial" ones…"

"I see. Did he ask about security cameras' placements too?"

"No, sir. He only said that if anyone asked about him to transmit a message to whomever it would be. Sir."

"Oh? So he left a message. What would it be?" Vadous turned off the footage and sipped some of the Coke.

"I wrote it down here, sir… "I am but the foot soldier. I serve the cassia horse. If you want to meet me, find the cassia horse. The cassia horse sleeps at the dragon king's feet."… That's it, sir."

" _Shogi_ wording, huh? Interesting…"

"I've got an idea of where the "dragon king" is at, though."

"Really? Where would that be?"

"Shiisa beach, sir. There is a dragon statue there, sir."

"Now that you mention it… There is. Alright. Here you have your reward…"

He discreetly handed him a 10,000 Zenny banknote and the barman discreetly pocketed it.

"Ah, yes. If he comes back and wants to know if anyone's asked about him please tell him that Zataki is looking for him. I'm interested in his pieces of craft." Vadous told the barman.

"I understand, sir. You may count on my discretion, sir."

"Good enough."

Vadous silently finished the Coke as the barman headed to a table to ask a new customer what their order was: he paid for the Coke as well and then exited the bar into the main plaza of the Roppondo Hills Cinema: he drew the Hunter – VG and inputted commands.

"Omega? Got a lead. Shiisa Island. The dragon's statue."

"Roger that. I'm heading there now. How much did you find out?"

"That man is but the foot soldier of someone else who claims to be a cassia horse."

"So our culprit likes to use _shogi_ naming, huh? Gotcha. I'm heading over there. Should I tell Akatsuki too?"

"Yeah. They could place a couple of plain-clothes officers to keep an eye if this man shows up in this bar again. Unlikely but we cannot discard the possibility."

"OK. Queen Virgo is in charge of patrol today. Storm and Miles are training in the VR while Blood and Sigma are playing a game of chess."

"Good."

"Lartes reports that all's nominal as well."

"Fine. I'm going to wander around. Maybe our man is lurking closer than we think, even."

"Roger. I'll be there in another few minutes."

Vadous cut the transmission and headed outside: he looked around and sighed when he saw how crowded the square and the ramp leading to TK Tower were.

 _It's like trying to find a needle in a hay stack. That man's face could be a mask to begin with. And maybe he's actually the culprit and that_ shogi _wording is a dead end to begin with. I've got the hunch that once we find the cassia horse there'll be another message telling us to go find another piece… Like the incense chariot or the silver general._

"Looking for me, young man? Heh, heh, heh."

"Huh? What!"

A voice rang out and he looked at the platform over the entrance of the cinema: the old man named "Sepia" was standing there while stuffing both hands on his pockets and grinning: he suddenly ran off and mingled with the crowd heading for the TK Tower: Vadous cursed under his breath and gave chase but was having trouble finding a way through the crowd: when he finally reached the TK Tower square the old man was nowhere to be seen.

"Damn. Faster than one would expect of his age! Which reinforces the idea that he's disguising as an old man to make us think he's physically weak and can't do much. Who the hell's that guy?"

"Boss? I found the cassia horse piece here and it had a text file attached to it that says "find the angle mover and the flying chariot who sleep beneath ritual grounds"…" Omega reported.

"Ritual grounds? A temple?" He wondered.

"Could be."

"That old man showed up close by but mingled in the crowd and I've lost track of him. Faster than one would expect of an old man."

"So it's a disguise."

"Probably. And I had the guess that we were going to find a message telling us something like the one you found."

"Ritual grounds? Where could that be?"

"Excuse me, sir. Are you looking for the ritual grounds, sir?" A Denpa – kun asked Omega.

"Do you know something?"

"One of those thieves that often show up here left those there yesterday evening, sir. And was saying something along "who's the lunatic that calls "ritual grounds" to that music stage at Okudama Studios?"…"

"The stage at Okudama Studios? But then why name it like that?"

"Maybe because songs are also part of rituals there and there. It's not a crazy association of ideas." Vadous admitted.

"Fine. So I need to go to Okudama Studios next."

"So it'd seem."

"I did tell Akatsuki and he's arranging for the stakeout."

"OK. Huh?"

"What's wrong, Boss?"

Vadous suddenly noticed something and looked into his coat's right pocket: there was a torn notebook page with something scribbled into its surface that had been stuffed there.

"The old man, surely! "The bolt and god's territory… Instant kill!"… What the hell does this mean, anyway?"

"Dunno. Feels like a lame attempt at a joke."

"Sure does! Sheesh. There were so many people crossing around that I didn't pay attention… So maybe he's lurking close by… And has removed the disguise hence why I didn't recognize him…" Vadous began to scan the surroundings.

"Probably. Huff. Got to Okudama studios. Let's ask the security staff… Hey. I'm a collaborator of the Satella Police. Did anyone drop a _shogi_ piece around here yesterday?"

"Now that you mention it… Yes, I caught a thief doing something at the foot of the stage and when I tried to catch him he ran away dropping a couple of pieces with text files adhered to them. Here you have."

"Thanks. Let's see… "The dragon horse and the jeweled general send you greetings from the nest of humanity's folly."… The nest of humanity's folly? Whoever writes this thinks he's funny."

"Yeah. It's so vague, it could be anywhere. Something tells me it's not mere crime, it should be something broader… But the "Palace" is dismantled by now so it shouldn't be there… Or maybe it's at the dismantling site? Try checking there." Vadous tried to deduce.

"It's picking me that they've omitted the gold and silver generals, though. Maybe we'll find them there and then lead us to the king general."

"Could be. But let's not get too confident. We could be chasing a huge dead end to begin with."

"Obviously. I was starting to think along the same lines."

"Excuse me, are you Mr. Zataki, sir? I was asked to give you this by an elderly gentleman." One of the TK Tower guides walked over to him and gave him a folded notebook page.

"Thank you. Let's see… "Gold and silver are waiting for you to fill up the 251 numbers."… This rings a bell somewhere, no?"

"Sure does. I'll check it out later once I search the next site."

Vadous merely nodded in approval and scanned the area again.

 _So he didn't discard the disguise and is close by… Who the hell is this old man? What's their game? Got a bad feeling about this…!_


	9. Chapter 9: Hope

**Chapter 9: Hope**

20:33 PM (Japan Time), Sunday March the 13th…

"… Huff! What a bunch of lazy jerks. They give me all of the paperwork saying "you're the newbie, you gotta get used to how we work"… Bullshit! You just think that because you're my _senpai_ you can have me do your paperwork in your place…!"

"Is there a problem, sir?"

"Ah. Blood. No, no big deal! It's just that the hospital I work at tend to have me do tons of stupid paperwork…"

"One would think they were serious."

"When it comes to diagnostics and such they are. But outside of their main work they're arrogant idiots."

"Is that so, sir?"

"Oh, sure! They spend money gambling at _mahjong_ and tried to lure me in so that I would be indebted to them too!"

"Hmmm? What's this?"

Lartes had been going over some documents on a small workspace somewhere which had a desk built on the wall, a couple chairs and a nearby divan: there was a door to the left labelled "W.C." and the only entrance was behind him: Blood Shadow appeared as a pop-up on his PC's screen and was surprised at what Lartes explained.

"What's the matter, Blood?"

"I was about to overlook this! It's a bubble made of a reflective material and which has some images overlapped over its surface… And these images are the graphs of the brain implants' signals along with their location data!"

"What does this mean?" Lartes frowned.

"That you're not looking at real-time data but a falsification! The real data is trapped inside of the bubble!"

"By all the…" He gasped.

"Eat shotgun!"

There was the sound of Blood Shadow firing his shotgun: the graphs on the screen suddenly turned flat and the text "SIGNAL LOST" appeared plus a counter of how many hours, minutes and seconds had passed ever since then: Lartes suddenly stood up and leant both hands on the desk.

"By all the…! Subaru and the others have gone signal lost hours ago and we didn't notice! What the hell happened with the patrols?"

"Akatsuki – san said that Subaru – kun and the others were at the Roppondo Theater seeing a movie and that Queen Virgo was providing escort… I checked with him and he said that he did send that mail. But, then…?" Blood Shadow explained.

"The man you talked to was a fake! It's probably the work of those two defectives! Shit! They got us!"

"But this bubble is picking me… How did they get here unnoticed and how did they plan this without the antivirus or antimalware noticing? Or maybe it was disguised as an official, certified program?"

"Boss! Do you copy?"

"What's up, Lartes? We found the next two pieces hidden in one of the machines being used in the "Palace" dismantling and there was a message. "The general king is where vanity merges with vanity and gives birth to further vanity."…"

"Subaru and the others have been kidnapped!"

"WHAT?"

"Those rascals set up a fake graph on my PC to make me think everything was nominal and impersonated Akatsuki to trick Blood when he was checking the contents of a mail!"

"Fuck!"

"It's been some hours already, even!"

"Damn it all. And here I got engrossed in this silly treasure hunt. By the way, Blood! Gold, silver, 251 monsters… Does it ring a bell?"

"Well… It'd say it means _Pokémon Gold_ and _Silver_ …"

"I knew it! So whoever set this up knows retro stuff, too!"

"Vanity… Maybe it actually means emptiness?"

"Emptiness? Now that you mention it…"

"Akatsuki, do you copy? Trouble! Mass kidnapping!"

"Wha~t?"

"You got impersonated by one of those two defectives, too!"

"Shit. I'll ring the alerts!"

"If you can spare two or three officers I'd like to search the area for traces of this elusive old man, too! I'm sure he's part of the state of things but I'm unsure of how he fits into the picture." Vadous told him.

"OK! I'll try! Do we assume they used the eyeballs?"

"Probably. Last location data says they were at the Big Wave store and then it gets lost. I'm surprised Nangoku didn't report anything, though, if they were there."

"Did you say Nangoku?" Ryuusuke asked.

"Do you know something?"

"He called the normal police to report the disappearance of a group of 8 tourists and when he explained the phenomenon they redirected the case to us. I went to record his witness account and was about to active the search protocol when I got a report by the Shiisa Island local police that the tourists had appeared behind Shiisa Castle safe and sound and that they were victims of a prank by those two. So I filed the case as closed. Didn't think it was worth making a fuss about."

"Maybe they manipulated him into believing it was 8 tourists and not Subaru and the others to delay any possible discovery and allow them to stall for time." Lartes grumbled.

"He was rambling about surfing, some guy named Jimmy and about how he'd beat the guy in some midnight duel so I thought he wasn't too sure of what he said."

"Problem is… Are they in Japan or they did find hideouts overseas? Where do we start looking at?"

"Isolated or abandoned houses with a basement!"

"Alright. I'll go check the Kuroshima lighthouse just in case. They could think we wouldn't check the place twice."

"Good idea. I'd rather keep Omega here as I want to figure out what's waiting for us at the end of this silly treasure hunt."

"I'll mobilize the reserve DH users as well. The more hands we get to work on this, the better."

"… I see! The Black Hole Server! Vanity and emptiness… That Sirius rascal was gloating about that when Subaru faced him years ago." Omega realized.

"They must have a powerful Wizard if they can get there… And slip through Cepheus' guards and sentinel Viruses, too… If anything was out of place he'd already warned us."

"Agreed."

"What's with the fuss?" Tabuu asked over the radio.

"Was about to contact you. They aren't in the behemoth, right?"

"Nope."

"Obviously. Well, turns out they managed to fool our eyes and kidnap the group hours ago."

"Oh by all the… Last thing we needed." Tabuu grumbled.

"Do I go check the Black Hole Server, Boss?"

"Get there, Omega. I'll try to coordinate things in the meanwhile."

"Say. I've got an idea of how to locate those guys in an easy manner. It's something I've set up while they weren't around."

"Really? Why didn't you tell us?"

"I wanted to save it as a last resource and I wanted to ensure they didn't see it coming."

"Fine. Come to these… Let's make use of it. Have Queen Virgo ready to raid wherever Kanaya is at… And you, Blood, bring Sigma with you and go beat the crap outta Kurayami." Vadous ordered.

"Roger!"

Blood Shadow warped out of Lartes' PC while Lartes inputted several commands: a chuckle suddenly rang out of the Hunter – VG and a screen opened showing a logo.

This logo was the stylized purple-colored "SE" letters set vertically and inside of a triangle with a golden edge and having five-pointed stars set in each vertex.

"I'm back from the Beyond!" A man's voice rang out.

"Virus Daemon? Nice attempt. But Virus isn't actually dead. He's on the brig." Lartes wasn't impressed.

"Ah. So you spread word that he was dead and yet you secretly had him closed in prison, eh?" The voice changed to that of an old man.

"Hey! You're the guy I'm chasing! Come out of hiding!"

"Heh, heh, heh. Youth nowadays, always so impatient! You need to sweat more to get the goods." The man chuckled.

"What's your role in the overall picture? You don't obey either Hyde or those two brats."

"Who knows? Bring Wada Shinichi and he'll diagnose your death."

"Wada Shinichi? But that's a "Japanized" name of Doctor Watson from the Sherlock Holmes stories! It was used in the early 19th century editions of "A Study in Scarlet"!" Lartes argued back.

"As expected of the poisoner and treacherous Laertes."

"LARTES, DAMN IT! DON'T MIX ME UP WITH THE GUY FROM HAMLET!"

"Heh, heh, heh. You claim to want to help them yet you hide information from them. Talk about hypocrites!"

"I'm almost there, Boss." Omega reported.

"So! Ancient Red God of Destruction. Will your bloodthirst ever be satisfied? Or will you step over countless corpses while trekking a never-ending road of slaughter and death?"

"Oh, I'm so _scared_." Omega wasn't impressed.

"Hmpf! You all carry poison on your tongues. You're no better than politicians!"

"Well, Tabuu?" Vadous asked him in the meanwhile.

"Almost done. I just need to finish this little program… Another couple of minutes at the most. Are the others in standby? I'll open direct portals to the coordinates so that you can get there instantly."

"Hmpf! In the end you need to rely on a servant of Lucifer, the fallen angel!"

"And what if?" Vadous shot back.

"Hah. Roar while you can!"

"This encryption is too complicated to crack it in a short time."

"I've got powerful employers!"

"Or so you say. You could perfectly be the mastermind but plant red herrings to make us think there are others."

"… Something feels different here. I can't tell what, though. But there's something in the air." Omega muttered.

"Heh, heh, heh. That vanity will become your gravestone!"

"Brag on." Omega fumed.

"Huh? What now? Oh come on." Tabuu grumbled.

"What's happened?"

"Turns out there's a lot of those War-Rock copies that Dealer used in the past here and they're trying to lay wreck to everything here. I'm shaking them off since I need the main console."

"I don't think it's a security system that those two set up. And Hyde would rather steal it intact, too."

"This old man there must be the author of this."

"There must be more suffering! And sweat! And despair!"

"Who said we'll play by your rules, gramps?" Vadous grumbled.

"… I feel… something. But I can't find it yet."

"You feel your death in the midst of the vanity!"

"Oh come on. Go play _mahjong_ , gramps."

"Not even DUST will remain of YOU!"

"Now you talk like a grunt from some gang. Are you exposing your true nature?"

"Who knows, heir of humanity's folly?"

"Sheesh. Shut up already and do us a favor."

"Akatsuki here. I've come to the behemoth to give Tabuu a hand in shaking off these copies. They keep on growing!" Acid Ace reported over their channel.

"… I feel something's lurking close by. I think that it hopes to catch me unaware…"

"Did you reach the central area?"

"Almost there… Hop! Ah. There's the last piece here. Let's see… "The king of vanity shall become the vessel of the king of blood."… King of blood? What's that supposed to be, anyway?" Omega grumbled.

"ME! DIE!" A voice rang out.

"Huh? Woah!"

There was the sound of something hitting the floor and causing an explosion: Omega shot some attacks from his buster and they shattered several objects: Lartes inputted commands on the PC to switch to FPV (First Person View) using Omega's own inputs.

"Omega! Status report."

"A laser hit the ground where I was at. It's come from the NE and the thing's some meters deeper inside yet my IR can't properly scan the area. There's some level of interference by background radiation. But I feel like I've seen this laser somewhere else before." He reported.

"Now that you mention it, that man's voice rang a bell as well."

"If I can't have the blood at least I'll have the darkness!"

"What blood? Wizard blood?" Omega mocked.

"You damned Muggle!"

"Someone else with retro knowledge showed up."

"Well, Tabuu?"

"Huff! Well! Now it turns out that the program got deleted as I was fighting off these things but I've got several backups on me. I only need to upload it again and execute it yet… The console's OS suddenly locked and demands no less than 66 passwords." Tabuu reported back with some exasperation.

"66? Oh come on. Someone think he's being funny."

"Heh, heh, heh. Feel the despair, you foolish hypocrites."

"No good. When I manage to crack a piece of the encryption I find another that's a wholly different system so I can't use a common pattern or weakness… This guy's copying Virus' tactics."

"Heh, heh, heh. Whatever you do is in vain."

"I wonder about that. Turns out the passwords are merely all the digits from 0 to 66 in order. A mere child's play."

"Hmpf! That remains to be seen, admirer of Lucifer."

"I don't care about who Lucifer is or was. I'm an alien to begin with. Go teach that to the barbarians my creators have turned into. Maybe you'll have more success there." Tabuu shot back, annoyed.

"Heh, heh, heh. The heir of the cursed blood is to blame!"

"Who, Burai? Blame for what? For those two defectives? Oh come on. Like he could predict that the Sages of Mu had come up with something like that. Go fish!" Lartes grumbled.

"I can't find the attacker but I feel their presence nevertheless. They're pretty fast so maybe they're specialists at mid-air fighting." Omega reported in the meanwhile.

"There have been no other attacks insofar?" Vadous asked.

"No. Nothing. But I can't shake off the feeling that I've seen that laser attack somewhere else. I should've bothered to go over my memory files and properly add tags to them so that I could access them faster."

"Laziness will bring upon your end!"

"Speak for yourself. The End of the Cobra Unit has you on his sights."

"What? Where?" The old man gasped.

"There you are!" Vadous exclaimed.

"Damn!"

"Going somewhere?" A Satellla Police officer asked.

"I think it'd be better of you to give it up." Another added.

"Hmpf! You! Don't come any closer! See this vial? It's full of a new type of toxic gas… I can release it here and send this crowd to Hell in mere instants…" The old man warned.

"Shit. I can't tell if it's real gas or a prop." Vadous grumbled.

"I'm taking this! Hah!"

"Woah! What was that?"

"Ah! Jack! Good timing!"

"You were supposed to be out of commission!"

"I got the medic's permit to resume missions a while ago and rushed here since I guessed you needed reinforcements. Let's see… Scans suggest that this is a prop, alright." Jack Corvus told them.

"Don't be so fast! I've got another insurance here! When I press this button the bombs I've set below the ground will go off!"

"Slow!"

"Damn! It got taken off my hand again!"

"You can't compete with my speed to begin with."

"Come to these…!"

"Jack, grab the guy and keep his mouth open! I think he wants to bite a cyanide capsule set on one of his teeth!" Vadous ordered.

"Roger! Hah! You're not shutting your mouth, old man! Huh? Weird. There's no saliva and no breath."

"What?" Lartes frowned.

An explosion suddenly rang out: Jack Corvus groaned while Vadous hissed something: the public shrieked and panicked.

"A person exploded!"

"Terrorism!"

"Run!"

"I was first!"

"C-calm down! Ladies and gentlemen! Don't panic!" The officers tried to control the crowd.

"Damn. This guy was a Wizard to begin with!" Jack Corvus growled, annoyed.

"And here I thought he was pretty fast for an old man and turns out he's actually a Wizard! So he was a decoy the whole time!"

"… The enemy's presence has vanished all of a sudden. It's not here anymore but maybe it's hoping to ambush me when I come out. I'm returning." Omega reported.

"Alright. Well, Tabuu?"

"The copies self-destructed too. Phew. Now I can execute this program and find out their location. I'm sending a faked emergency signal to their Hunter – VGs making them think there's a major malfunction in the behemoth's water tanks and that the OS awaits their commands to send mechanic Wizards to repair the damage. It'll surely reach them in the middle of their "show" and they'll be annoyed at how the OS is so dumb. They'll surely send an order and that will allow us to know their location with absolute precision." Tabuu detailed.

"Good. They will be revealing themselves by their own hands. How fitting… Are both teams equipped with the Anti DH gun?" Vadous asked them.

"Sure. They're on standby and ready to act anytime now." Acid Ace confirmed.

"It's not out here, either? Then where'd it go to?" Omega wondered.

"Continue inspecting the surroundings just in case."

"Roger that. Once I come back I need to go over my files."

"If that old man's a decoy… Then who's pulling the strings?"

20:53 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Heh, heh, heh… Good, good! Struggle more! Despair more! Make the show more interesting!"

Kurayami was gloating as he saw how Subaru, Tsukasa and Kiboyama were placed in a triangular wooden horse each one.

These wooden horses had a metallic edge on the top and a thick vibrator built on it that was going inside of each guy's ass.

The three of them had their arms placed behind their backs and locked by black leather forearms placed on their wrists and which had a padlock locking the two small handles each forearm had.

Their legs were bent and there were restrains keeping the ankles locked in place.

Each of them had their eyes covered by a blindfold too.

"Heh, heh, heh. This is great!"

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP

"Huh? What's this? An emergency transmission from our base?"

Kurayami rushed to the central table and picked up his Hunter – VG which was beeping and displaying a "WARNING" screen: he inputted a command and a message showed up.

"HUH? Oh come on! Stupid OS! You need my permission to send repair Wizards to fix a major malfunction in Tank 3? Sheesh! Fix it at once! You lazy moron!" He grumbled as he hit the "Authorize" button.

He tossed the Hunter – VG into the box and fumed before he resumed looking at his prisoners: he grinned again and chuckled.

"Heh, heh, heh. They must be despairing by now. I don't need to hack into their implants to know that. My instinct tells me as much."

"COME AT FULL POWE~RRRR!"

"Wha? Whoa!"

THUD! PTAF! SMASH!

"Groah! You… Sigma! How the hell did you…?"

"Don't forget me, ugly."

"Blood Shadow! Impossible!"

"No, not impossible at all. Your accomplice leaked this place."

"But we'll find her soon, too."

"Damn it! I knew it! That woman couldn't be trusted!"

Sigma suddenly appeared from a portal that formed to the right and tackled Kurayami: the blow send him crashing against the west wall: he slid it down to the ground and managed to sit up only to find Blood Shadow aiming his shotgun from close by at his NE.

"Dare to move and those hostages die!" He tried to threaten.

"Nice bluff. Sigma! Handle this guy. Don't waste time and use the trump card at once. I'm going to free the others."

"Roger!"

"Eat shotgun!"

Kurayami materialized his and tried shooting at Sigma but the blast got deflected by an octahedron-shaped semi-transparent shield: Sigma materialized a small green sphere of energy and it suddenly shot a beam of energy that hit Kurayami and sent him flying to hit the southern wall: he let go of the shotgun from the surprise.

"Kuh…! Huh? My body's sluggish…! Damn…! An anti Denpa – Henkan weapon…! Bastard!"

"Yeah! We're tired of playing cat and mouse with you rascals. We're going to lock you up and then Hyde and Shinobi come next!"

"Sh…! Damn you, woman! To think you'd actually sell me out…! I'll send you back where you belong! To nothingness!"

"That's the way of the Dark Side, anyway!"

"Shit! I'm not going down… so easily…! Damn! It's shutting down my body's functions too…!"

"You never fight fair and I don't want to take chances so we're using this to make sure that you're not getting away. The jammers you set impede you from escaping as well! You're cornered by your devices!"

"Damn them all…! But as long as… there's hatred in the world… I'll keep on existing! You can't destroy me!"

"Save me the loser's speech, you jerk! You're but a program. Programs can be deleted! But deleting you would mean you wouldn't feel the weight of your crimes on your flesh. So that's why we're sending you back to the brig and this time around for good!" Sigma loomed over him.

Kurayami hissed and tried to attack but his eyes lost all life to them all of a sudden and he dropped to the floor face-down: Sigma cautiously put some distance and tapped him with the blade but there was no reaction: he then scanned him.

"Boss! I've confirmed that the program has taken effect."

"Good. Blood? How about them?" Vadous asked.

"They've all fainted, sir."

"Alright. Tabuu will re-open the portal and you bring them back. Can you find their clothes?"

"Let's see… Here they are, piled up inside a box." Blood Shadow found a box nearby that had their clothes inside.

"Good. Lartes, head there and help Blood dress them up a bit before we send them to the hospital."

"Roger that."

"We managed to subdue the panic somehow. Jack's trying to find clues by asking the Denpa – kuns and other programs if they've seen anything out of place as of late."

"This is Queen Virgo. Sorry it took so long. This woman was being stubborn and it'd seem that delayed the activation of the program. Both Hibiki and her friend are here and they're unconscious as well. Can you send some female officers to help me take them away?" Queen Virgo radioed.

"Sure. I had a team on standby already."

"Hum. So this is in Kiso Valley, huh?" Sigma scanned some documents.

"This woman had chosen a house in the Sapporo outskirts."

"I see. Well, two headaches less. Now's lets go catch the other two and wrap this up!"

"OK. Hey, Gonta. What's the status there?"

"Buro~! Crown Thunder and I have been patrolling but those two haven't come out. It'd seem Hyde is going over his books again and Shinobi is training…" Ox Fire reported.

"But Shinobi looks like he's on the lookout nevertheless so we should gather discreetly." Crown Thunder added.

"Alright. Let's wrap up this front and then go catch those two. We just need to fire the weapon at them and that'll render them powerless. Let's make sure to immobilize Shinobi because the type can kill with his bare hands, even. I'd say the guy should be placed in isolation regime or he'll start to strangle all other prisoners." Acid Ace grumbled.

"Sure thing…"

Lartes had come to the scene and was helping Blood Shadow (who'd removed the shotgun from the right arm to work with both hands) take out all that "gear" from Subaru and the others and dress them up with their clothes: Blood Shadow noticed something.

"Oh come on. Kurayami. The smug bastard."

"What's wrong, Blood?"

"Look at behind the right shoulder, sir. He wrote "dorei" (slave) with a black marker in all of them."

"I see. Well, if it's only a marker then it can be easily erased. Problem would've been if he'd carved that with a knife in their skins."

"The same thing has happened here as well. They both have similar habits indeed. And, Akatsuki… I hope you won't try to peek." Queen Tia told them over the radio.

"Oh come on! Tia! I'm mature enough to know my place. Did I ever try to peek on you back when we were in Dealer?"

"No. But a warning is a warning, nevertheless."

"Fine, fine. Anyway… Let's get ready for the strike and…"

"Huh? Wait a minute! Oh crap!"

"What's wrong, Gonta?"

"We were doing another patrol and when he tried to check with the IR scanner… It turned out they're holograms!"

"What? Damn it. They ran away and left those behind to fool us! Lovely, just LOVELY!" Acid Ace hissed.

"Grumbling won't help us. Let's post an international search warrant through the Satella Police." Vadous suggested.

"I've spoken to Cepheus' guards but they haven't seen anyone apart from me coming in or out. Unless there's another entrance or exit we don't know about." Omega reported in the meanwhile.

"Very strange. An old man who's actually a Wizard, a familiar laser and a familiar voice yet they don't reveal themselves… This is turning very strange indeed." Lartes looked rather puzzled.

"At the very least those two haven't come here. I'd keep the watch here in case they decide to do so." Tabuu suggested.

"Agreed. Maybe they went to Austria. I'd say we start looking there. Or maybe Hyde will start up a fuss on his own and reveal himself. Something like appearing at the Parliament and claiming he's come to rule Austria since he's a duke." Acid Ace suggested a possible scenario.

"Alright. Come back to the HQ, Omega, and carry out that revision of your memory files. Then inspect the system and try to find how and when that PC was hacked." Vadous ordered.

"Good point. We still don't know who did it. Sounds like the old man, but how did he get here undetected? Maybe he's been monitoring us and overheard our passwords."

"Could be. Maybe we'll have to change the way we ID everyone who comes in and out of the HQ. More headaches!"

"Indeed. And I've got a bad feeling about this."

"Who doesn't, anyway? I want to get to the bottom of this ASAP."

 _Hyde can wait. This old man is way more dangerous! Who the hell is he?_


	10. Chapter 10: Hybrid

**Chapter 10: Hybrid**

11:06 AM (Japan Time), Wednesday March the 16th…

"… Are you alright, Tsukasa – kun? You look like you're going to fall asleep at any minute now."

"Huh…? Ah! T-thank you, Gino – kun… I just need to watch my face… Be right back…"

"… I think I'll better go check."

"Please do so, Subaru – kun. I think he's barely sleeping as of late."

"Yeah. Leave it to me."

Kiboyama called out to Tsukasa after a lesson ended: he looked sleepy and about to fall asleep: he formed a bitter smile and then sluggishly stood up to head to the restroom: Kiboyama whispered to Subaru, who nodded in agreement.

 _Tsukasa – kun is the one out of us three that spent most time unconscious at the hospital. Gino – kun seems to have more or less coped with what's happened but I'm worried about Tsukasa – kun. Can't be helped. It must've been horrible to him taking into account his past experiences._

Subaru silently came out of the classroom and headed into the men's toilet: he opened the door a bit and found Tsukasa washing his face with the faucet's water: he then looked up at the mirror and formed a grimace and he closed both fists and hit the sink's ceramic desk with them.

"I'll kill them. Kill them! And I'll be free…!" He hissed.

"No, you won't. Tsukasa – kun." Subaru stepped in.

"Huh? What. It's you. Did you follow me?" Tsukasa wasn't precisely glad to see him.

"Yeah. I was concerned."

"Hmpf. No need to!"

"Now, Tsukasa – kun… Being offended won't make you stronger or solve your problems."

"Then leave me alone. Why bother to stick around with someone so miserable and useless?"

"You're neither of those."

"Yeah, I am! Come to laugh me, right?"

"Wrong. You're not being rational."

"The hell with that!"

"Revenge is a delusion. Do you want to hear to several witness accounts of people who killed others in the name of revenge and then ended up being more miserable than they already were?" Subaru sighed.

"And what if I turn more miserable? Like I care."

"So you want to be the same as them?"

"Eh? N-no, I didn't say that."

"Yes, you did. You'll become someone who depends on hatred and anger, like them. You'll become what you wanted to deny."

"N-no! I'll become free!"

"You won't. That's an illusion, too. Free of what? Of nightmares? Doubtful. Do you have any scientific evidence proving that?"

"… Shit." He grumbled.

"I understand that you're in pain. And that you feel tempted to do something to get rid of it. But that's exactly what that guy was aiming to: turning you into someone like them."

"But I'll be stronger than them!"

"So you're admitting that you want to become someone like them. Those two were but programs that tried to imitate us humans but lacked major emotions like "kindness". They denied "bonds". They thought they were an incarnation of the hatred in the world but they were mere defective experiments."

Tsukasa remained silent and avoided making eye contact with Subaru: he still didn't look totally convinced or more like he was begrudgingly coming to terms with Subaru's advice.

"You're who you are. You needn't imitate others. I don't mind if you feel like you need to cry or you feel those memories haunting you. No – one's perfect. I have them, too. I've also felt the temptation you're feeling."

"…Really?"

"Really. Right after what happened with Virus Daemon… I did feel the temptation. It was very strong. But thanks to Master I realized that it was pointless."

"… So… You don't think I'm a whelp?"

"Of course not! Tsukasa – kun! Don't get the wrong idea about yourself. You're my friend. No matter what happens."

"… Thank you." He let out a sigh of relief and his eyes watered.

"See? I knew that you needed some advice. Sorry for listening in but I was worried, too." Kiboyama walked in.

"Thank you, guys… It's just that…"

"We know. But if we let rage get a hold of us then our efforts to resist will have been in vain."

"Oops. It's already 11:22 AM! Let's rush downwards, have the breakfast, and get back."

"Alright."

"B-B-B-Bertie~! I'm the king of trolls!" Omega's voice rang out from Subaru's Hunter – VG.

"Guess Boss told him to shake off some tension… It'd seem they've earnt no new clues ever since Saturday."

"Did you know, guys? April's Fool is only about half a month away!"

"Oh, true. Wonder what they'll pull off this year." Tsukasa wondered.

"Something crazy, as usual."

"Such as… Acid Ace became Acid Lover?" Omega laughed.

"Oh come on. That's taking it too far, no?" Kiboyama laughed at Omega's joke.

"Feels like an "acid" romance comedy title." Subaru grinned.

"Sure. Ah, yeah. Utagai – san is training to start his new version of the _Swan Lake_ and will hire Ushijima to act the role of the villain's big and slow-witted henchman. Yessir."

"Omega. Don't overdo it, either." Vadous sighed.

"Oho. _Shachou_ showed up. Did you find the dragon-shaped cookie Dragon readied for ya?"

"No. And somehow I think he didn't. Cut the call since it's about time for them to resume the lessons."

"OK. I'm going to visit Nangoku since he seems to be in a foul mood as of late, maybe he needs some humor. Bye!"

The group had already come down to the yard and they ate their breakfasts: Gonta was talking something with Kizamaro and Jack while Luna was going over the Physics textbook: the trees had begun to regain their leaves and the colors of spring radiated from their leaves.

"Hey. Kids. Did you see the rat?" Ogami Juurou asked as he carried his gardener's scissors on the right hand.

"Huh? No, sir. When was that, sir?" Subaru asked.

"About 5-10 minutes ago. I was doing some work in the rooftop vegetables when I saw it trying to eat up a carrot. I'm trying to locate it and get rid of it just in case. We don't any of them carrying diseases around." He explained.

"I see. But we haven't seen it, sir."

"Thanks. Guess I'll eventually find it." He grumbled.

Ogami left and the group began to climb back up into the building: they sat on their desks and readied the materials for the next lesson: the electronic board's screen suddenly frizzled and was filled with static for a few seconds: it fixed and the old man who called himself "Sepia" appeared onscreen.

"Heh, heh, heh. Foolish youth. Your struggles are in vain. We are all doomed for, anyway." He chuckled.

"How rude of you!" Luna got annoyed.

"The fire of youth, is it? Pointless. Truly. Parents nowadays! They slack off their duties. No wonder the world's heading to its untimely end as we speak. Heh, heh, heh. We'll go down with a bang. And your politicians will have wasted the chance to save you in exchange for money!"

"What's this?" A teacher came in, surprised.

"Here comes a fool. Listen up! You've got less than 24 hours to die. You've been a fool for too long. Use them wisely! The Fool Killer will be coming, make no mistake of it!"

"WHAT? I'm reporting you to the police!"

"Hmpf! Struggle as much as you want, you immature fools! Your headstones will cover the continents!"

The old man crackled and then footage disappeared: everyone fumed, grumbled or were annoyed.

"I better call the Satella Police. This is hacking! I hope it wasn't an attempt to steal pupils' or teachers' data! Wait here, students. I'll go make the call and then we'll start the lesson."

"Yes, sir." Everyone acknowledged.

The teacher ran off while the group sighed: Subaru frowned and brought the right hand to his chin.

 _Something tells me that this old man is an illusion and the real culprit isn't old at all. They must want to make us focus on this appearance and impede us from thinking of other candidates. The culprit could be a woman posing as a man, even. Anaya did spread rumors to make it look like she was a woman so that the underground wouldn't question if she was fit to rule them… And maybe this culprit is using the name of the "Secret Empire" but in truth he or she are wholly unrelated and it's yet another illusion, another dead end. What's their game, anyway?_

"…bring them with the power of my charisma and…!" Luna had climbed to the teacher's stand and was making a speech.

"Ahem, ahem. Shirogane – san. You're still in the midst of a class even if I wasn't present." The teacher came back in.

"Yikes! I'm deeply sorry, sir! It's just that… I thought I needed to prove that that footage hadn't been able to bring down our morale."

"That's not a bad idea but I'd prefer if you asked for permission. Please sit down. We're going to start the lesson."

 _Oh well. Let's focus on the lesson. That other stuff can wait._

12:47 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Nothing new, Cepheus?"

"Nothing. I've had Viruses scan the place but apart from the secret exit I'd already told you about we found nothing new. Did Omega find anything on his files?"

"Turns out that some of them had been stolen by the same culprit who altered Lartes' PC. They apparently impersonated Omega and knew the passwords so the system didn't detect them as a threat."

"Hum. Who could it be?"

"Dunno… We investigated Kodama Middle, too, but found zero traces of any forceful intrusion. It'd seem the culprit planted something there beforehand."

"I see. What about Hyde and his man?"

"They aren't in Austria. And they haven't been spotted anywhere else as of yet so maybe they picked somewhere remote."

Akatsuki was speaking with Cepheus over the Hunter-VG as he went over several files he had piled up on his Satella Police HQ work desk: he looked tired and annoyed while Cepheus wasn't too surprised.

"We spread a rumor that those two self-destructed so that should reduce the risk of Hyde breaking them outta the brig."

"Good idea."

There was a sudden tremor and everyone stopped what they were doing, surprised, to look around.

"Some kind of laser has attacked the building's 35th floor outer wall! But the enemy is invisible!" An announcement rang out.

"Speaking of the devil, they finally decided to show up! Took them long enough, man. Acid! Let's go assess what we're dealing with." Akatsuki muttered.

"Roger."

"Don't take the enemy lightly." Cepheus warned.

"I know. Denpa – Henkan! Akatsuki Shidou, On Air!"

He transformed into Acid Ace and warped outside the building: at first sight there was no trace of the attacker but if one focused their sight they could see a silhouette against the gray background of the building.

"Camouflage system, huh… It merges with surrounding colors and makes it hard to spot with the naked eye and IR as well."

"Indeed."

"So you finally showed up! My disgraced son!" A familiar voice boomed out of nowhere.

"Your voice rings a bell." Acid Ace muttered.

"Enough hiding! Taste the despair! Hah!"

"HUH? Y-you're…! Sirius?"

The attacker turned out to be Sirius, the Denpa Body who'd controlled the Black Hole Server: his appearance remained the same yet something about him felt off place nevertheless.

"Your voice… Was it like this before?"

"Hah! Catching up, eh? About time! And to think I gave you some days to see if you'd assemble the pieces together…! But looks like you didn't! My disgraced son!"

"The only guy I know who'd call me "son" is… You… King!"

"Exactly! Now I am King Sirius! This body is my new vessel! I've been reborn into something greater! All thanks to that old man! I owe him one but when I get all of his knowledge I'll dispose of him! Hah!" King's voice rang out from Sirius' mouth.

"Bah. No big deal. You're merely remotely controlling Sirius' body through a powerful radio signal. It's a mere puppet. You're as lame as usual, King. You're a pitiful man who won't come to terms with reality. It's about time I settled the score with you as well." Acid Ace scoffed.

"Hmpf! Fine! I'll get rid of your loathsome existence while I'm at it! And with this new vessel I shall be invicible! I control the darkness of the Universe!"

"The Black Hole Server is but a spheroid with a hologram around it."

"Grrr!"

"It doesn't have dark matter or dark energy. It's only a name. And Sirius was lying about sucking off whole planets. What he did steal was their magnetic energy to power up his own spheroid. Subaru proved he wasn't that much of a deal by beating him years ago. Not even Mu Metal helped the guy avoid defeat." Acid Ace lectured.

"Grrrr! I'll tear you to pieces! Die! Satellite Laser!"

Sirius' wings jumped away and became the four "satellites" he controlled: they loaded up energy and began to fire the multi-colored thick laser at Acid Ace while erasing anything on its path: Acid Ace shot a Giza Wheel Battle Card at Sirius' forehead and it momentarily stunned the enemy: Acid Ace used his thrusters to jump upwards and above the enemy to land behind him and stab him with the sword yet it was met with an invisible barrier protecting the body.

"Hah! Fool! I foresaw that!"

"No, you didn't. That old man did."

"Grrr! I'd like to know what their game is, too! But first things firsts! I'll get rid of you bastards!" King growled.

"Their control signal is very powerfully encrypted. I cannot trace it back to the origin but it seems to use invisible "wormholes" to skip distances and be able to reach this body wherever it is at."

"That old man sure has knowledge about this stuff, man. I really want to figure out who's that guy's true identity." Acid Ace sighed.

"This isn't the only thing I can do! I can summon your antithesis as well! Be destroyed by yourself! Mwah, hah, hah."

A carbon copy of Acid Ace suddenly formed there: the eyes glowed with a red glow and a purple "aura" surrounded it: the carbon copy suddenly dashed towards Acid Ace while leaving a trail of "black paint" behind that went on erasing the Wave Roads.

"Oh shit. Not this stuff again."

"This could be troublesome." Acid drily muttered.

"You mean that we could end up in a tight spot!"

"Maybe."

"Oh come on. Why are you being so vague when it comes to these things? I'd prefer if you were straighter to the point."

"Mwah, hah, hah. Feeling cornered, Akatsuki? You can't run away from me anymore!"

"Shut up and do us a favor."

Acid Ace began to jump as he tried to outrun the "satellites" that began to shoot thick laser beams which went on cutting off and erasing segments of the Wave Roads: Sirius' body hovered in the middle of the air while several more "black" Acid Ace began to form and spread further "black paint" around the area.

"I've had enough! Eat this!"

Acid Ace landed atop the building and drew a Battle Card with Tabuu's face and upper body drawn on it: a copy of Tabuu formed and spread the wings as four circular shockwaves spread from around his body: they wiped out all enemies and Sirius got knocked off the sky to crash into the ground face-up: King grumbled and tried to make the body stand up again which it did in a sluggish manner.

"What the hell was that?"

"Need Not to Know. Ask your precious old man who surely knows and didn't tell you to make you look shameful."

"DAMN IT!" King roared and the sound of him beating his hover-chair's desk rang out.

"Go to Las Vegas and try to take over the casinos there. But stop bringing us further headaches." Acid Ace scoffed.

"FINE! I'll kill that old man first! You got next!"

A "Noise Wave" opened behind Sirius and he quickly hovered inside before it closed: Acid Ace looked with a grim face at how almost all of the Wave Roads had been erased: several Wizards and other programs began to build new ones.

"So that's why the culprit stole Omega's files. To build up pointless intrigue. And it turned out to be LAME. As expected!"

"Indeed."

"Struggle and die! Fools!" The old man suddenly roared from atop the building's antenna mast.

"Speaking of the devil! You! Come down and fight me!"

"Hah! No need to! Rubble will fight rubble!"

"I hate stupid suspense shows. Hah!"

Acid Ace jumped towards the old man but he turned out to be a hologram: the old man cackled.

"It's useless, Holmes! I, Moriarty, control all of the lucrative business in this metropolis! My death will not end it! New men will follow on my footsteps!" He laughed.

"Now he thinks he's Moriarty. Great, just _great_."

"Grab the knife! Let the kin-strife begin!"

"Sure, sure. You're the one who'll be backstabbed by your own paws sooner or later." Acid Ace fumed.

"I wonder about that. I'm already dead! So they can't kill me again. Hah, hah, hah!"

"Oh come on. This is LAME. It's pathetic. And you're going to tell me that you can't figure out the origin, Acid?"

"I can. It's that small spheroid SE of the hologram."

"Good enough."

Acid Ace quickly caught a small white spheroid some tens of centimeters wide which had some optical lenses in the front and shut it down: he sighed in relief and then jumped down in front of the main entrance.

"Let's analyze this but I'm sure there'll be no clues. Maybe this was remotely operated from close by but the logs have already been erased. Wouldn't surprise me."

"Good work, Akatsuki – kun. Let's get working on it ASAP."

"Roger, Chief. I'm coming up."

 _I hate these stupid shows. When will it end? SHEESH!_

21:45 PM (Mexico Time), Tuesday March the 13th…

"… Ah! But then… The _flamenco_ summoner summoned a _flamenco_ summoner who wasn't a summoner until the summoner said he was a summoner and the summoner became a summoner of the summoner who wasn't a summoner but was a summoner and…!"

"Does he ever _tire_ , man?"

"Nope. Don't ask me _why._ "

"But why is he obsessed with that?"

"Ever since he met that Mexican with the pointlessly endless tongue-twisters he's gotten obsessed with them. Must think it makes him look smart. On the contrary!"

" _Kuu, kuu, kuu_!"

Shinobi looked on with disbelief as how Hyde paced around a worn-down living room somewhere: it had furniture similar to the one in Japan yet the windows had anti-mosquito nets installed on them: Phantom was sighing, Assassin was laughing and Shinobi was baffled: Hyde was speaking in a rush and trying to do a tongue-twister as many times as he could without getting his tongue stuck.

"Ah! But then… The lair's agents lurked in the 13 of Guy Street! Send the National Guard! They're cornered! They'll be caught in less than 66 seconds! The road awaits them! It's another triumph of the revolution! All thanks to the might General Camparro!"

"Why 66 seconds, anyway?"

"Dunno. Guess the author is obsessed with the devil and must believe it brings bad luck to his enemies."

"And who are the "lair's agents", anyway?"

"Spies sent by Ameroupe. Y'know, the nation north of us."

"And why not say it by name?"

"Insists it brings disgrace to whoever says it aloud. But in truth is that he's a fervent communist who hates what the northern nation stands for so he think he's humiliating them by degrading them to a "lair"…"

"Who was that guy, anyway?"

"The nephew of our employer!"

"That for real? Huff."

"Hyde must also think that this proves we're serious about "integrating" with this nation's culture. He didn't bother back when Virus hired us there in Taiwan, though. Meh. Guess it's the guy's manias."

" _Kuu, kuu, kuu! Kaa, kaa, kaa!_ "

"Stop that stupid cackle already, Assassin! It makes me feel further annoyed!" Shinobi grumbled.

" _Omee wee beekee!_ "

"What was that? That I'm an idiot? Oh, sure! You're one to _talk_! You can only think in butchering living things like sheep!"

"Oh boy." Phantom sighed.

"Yes, Miss Inés! The lair's agents lurk in the 13 of Lair Street! But fret not! We'll soon take care of them! My best regards, my fair lady! So long, my lady!"

"And that crazy nephew guy pretends he's a "gentleman" and that he can gain the admiration of women, huh? Pathetic."

"Sure. I fail to see the point."

"You're not the only one, man."

"Aha-hah! We caught you! You go to broom the road! 66 kilometers of road in 6 days! And then we send you to lick your masters' shoes back in the lair! Nobody can defeat the Grand Universal Golden Eternal Absolute Blessed Frivolous Beautiful Charming REVOUTION! Led by the Grand Supreme Charismatic Patriotic Revolutionary General… CAMPARRO~! Mwah, hah, hah!"

"It's only been 2-3 days since we got here and he's already like this. This doesn't fare well. At all!" Shinobi grimly muttered.

"Of course it doesn't. We're all heading to a shameful failure. I can see it coming!"

"What do you think of the latest news, though?"

"That old man is a decoy. No doubt about it. A disguise the culprit uses to hide their identity and their game. That "favor" he did to that King guy feels like a crappy collage. That guy's goal is something else but I cannot fathom what it is." Phantom deduced.

"Yeah. Insofar he's the one who told us our skills were sought by this Mexican CEO with powerful buddies in the current government: he wants us to do his dirty job of intimidating and plundering to benefit his conglomerate."

"But he wanted us to leave Japan since the Satella Police guys were about to get serious and catch us… In that aspect he was right, yet… It's only a matter of time before they detect us here."

"Sure thing…"

"So! Who was the rolling of rollers? Hum! Suspicious! Why? You don't know the Patriotic Revolutionary Universal Golden Mexican Revolution passwords! They should've been mailed to all true Mexicans over 66 weeks ago! Then you're a lair's agent! Caught you! It's useless to deny it! My nose tells me you reek of burnt rascal!"

"Sure, sure. Like you can turn "smell" into data. You can't. This guy is really an idiot. And I'm surprised the CEO lets him loose like that. Guess he uses him to give the image he's not serious." Phantom grumbled.

"Obviously! And how do you tell a "true" Mexican apart from a "lair's agent", anyway? They could've been Mexicans who've been outta the country for some time, they've just come back and they didn't get the letter back then."

"Yes, General! By your command, sir! I shall catch those lair's agents and send them to broom the roads! Yes, sir! I, Luis "Scarlet", will make sure of it, sir! Yes, sir! The number two of the United States of Mexico shall not disappoint you, sir!"

"And to top it off he believes he's the second most important man in the nation. Talk about egocentric."

"In truth he'd like to say he's the number one but he's begrudgingly come to accept nobody would take him seriously so he made up this genera guy that, for some reason, will make of him his right-handed agent. Oh, sure. Like it's ever going to happen." Shinobi sighed in defeat.

" _Kee, kee, kee! Keeree wee eemeeesheeree_!"

"Will you stop altering your words to use only "e" on them instead of using the proper vowels? And I know what you mean to say. "This is fun!"… For you. Not for us."

"Huff. Those Assassins' Clan guys… They could've bothered to come up with a more decent AI, couldn't they?"

"Obviously. Lazy dorks."

"Miss! Connect me to the Revolutionary Forces HQ! It's a matter of life and death! Yes, Miss!"

"And when the guy starts ringing at random and a woman answers he thinks it's the telephonist." Phantom mumbled.

"The guy's an idiot who doesn't know the day of the week or the day of the month to begin with. He's only survived because the CEO rascal has kept him around."

"And Hyde bragging he'd "civilizing" the nation to behave like Austria only to end up behaving like an idiot. When you say you'll do something it's often bound to end up in a failure."

"My Shakespeare soul guides me to supremacy! Our employer will be satisfied and our reward shall increase!" Hyde laughed.

"Like it would." Both muttered.

"Huh? Did you say SOMETHING?"

"N-n-no." Both quickly replied.

"Fine! Shinobi! Tell me! Who's that old man?"

"We'd all like to know, Master! But not even the Satella Police has managed to get a hold of who he's supposed to be. He claims to be of the same org Virus Daemon was part of, though."

"That much I got. But what's his game?"

"Dunno. That's what everyone would love to know, Master."

"Hum! He must be a spy from France come to laugh at us!"

"F-France? Dunno where it is or why they'd bother to do that."

"Hmpf! As expected of a barbarian come from southern lands! They're barbarians!"

"Hyde~… Stop acting like an idiot. Are you planning on doing that guy's "wet works" forever or what?"

"Depends. If the man starts slacking on the agreed reward then I'll crush his bones and go seek another employer. I need money! To restore the supremacy of the House of Hyde!"

"Huff."

"And once I do I will be able to crush those brats!"

"Yeah, sure. Like you will. You've tried over 20-30 times in the last few years and you've always failed."

"Silence, you evening tabloid envoy! You're not worth a shilling, even! Mere plebs!"

"Military isn't plebs, Hyde… I've told you countless times I was part of the Mu Army, didn't I?"

"But since it doesn't exist anymore you're back to being mere plebs!"

"Huff. You and your stupid loopholes… They're a waste of time."

"They enlighten the soul of Austria! Shinobi! Find me the office of General Camparro! We're going to ask him to give us the means to restore Austria to grand and eternal glory! Mwah, hah, hah!"

"That Camparro guy only exists in that Luis guy's imagination, Hyde! So stop wasting the time by becoming a clone of him and let's do something useful already." Phantom insisted.

"Ah! Such bewitchery! It must be the witches Macbeth witnessed and who led him to grand disgrace! But they won't be able to fool me! I will get the glory and I'll bring down those brats! No-one will stop me this time around!" He began to frantically pace around the table again.

"I give up."

"You're not the only one."

" _Kaa, kaa, kaa_!"

"Glory! For me! For Austria! And for my grand and beautiful victory!"


	11. Chapter 11: Uncontrollable

**Chapter 11: Uncontrollable**

10:29 AM (Japan Time), Friday March the 18th…

"… Hello? Suzuka? Can I come in?"

"… Sure."

"… Let's be honest. Did you manage to sleep at least 4 hours?"

"… No. It was about… 3 or 2…"

"Thought as much. Did you try drinking something hot or washing your face?"

"Well…"

Misora stepped in Suzuka's room in Okudama Studios: she looked tired and like she hadn't had much sleep: some bags had formed under her eyes too and she didn't look energetic.

"You didn't." Misora sighed.

"Sorry. It's just that… I didn't want the others to see me like this. I must look like someone who doesn't care about looking healthy."

"That's not it, Suzuka. They don't know what happened on that day, Mamoru – san just said that you feel unsure about yourself as of late but that you'll eventually regain your confidence. So it won't strike as odd. I'm saying this for your sake. Please go wash your face. You'll feel better if you do so."

"Alright…"

Suzuka left the room and Misora sighed as she sat on a chair near the entrance and booted up the Hunter-VG to check the latest news and the email.

"Pororon. Do you think she'll recover? Ice is worried, too." Harp popped out to her right.

"I can't guarantee that but I think that, with some persistence, she'll eventually regain her usual, cherry nature. I can always ask _sensei_ to lend me a hand. She was there on the hospital to try to comfort us. And she can be convincing."

"Pororon. Let's hope so, yeah."

"Suzuka? Are you there?" Urakata knocked on the door.

"I told her to go wash her face. She didn't look energetic."

"Alright. No, it's no big deal. I just wanted to ask her if she wanted to take the day off. The recording can be postponed a day if necessary. If she doesn't feel sure about herself then it'd be better that she doesn't attempt to take part in the recording."

"I was about to suggest the same thing."

"Urakata – san, a package from your aunt, sir."

"Oh, really? OK. I'm going to pick it up."

"Hmmm… Ah. Speaking of _sensei_ , she sent a mail. She's come to patrol the area and if we need to talk with her then we can give her a ring. It might be a good idea to do so."

"Pororon. Sure."

"I'm back. You were right, Misora. I feel somewhat better." Suzuka came back in along with Ice.

"Glad to see that. Mamoru – san just dropped by and said that if you weren't feeling well then we can postpone the episode's recording until tomorrow."

"Hmmm… It's in two hours' time, no? I think I'll feel better by then. No, let's not postpone it."

"Alright."

"… GJRHDHGSHGH!" Urakata growled something undecipherable as he apparently walked at a quick pace across the corridor.

Both girls came out into the corridor to see him grumbling and holding a pendant of a golden skull shaped like an apple including the root popping out from atop and two small leaves.

"What's that, Mamorou – san?" Misora asked.

"Someone's idea of a lame prank! There was a note that said "Congratulations, you fool! You're one of the Tokai Family now! Let the bloodshed over the inheritance begin!"… And they wanted to make me believe my aunt sent this! Like she would! GHDHGDJOAHGTH!"

"I guess it's the famed old man." Misora sighed.

"Famed old man?"

"Yes. There's a mysterious old man who names himself "Sepia" who's popping there and there and starting a fuss. We know it's a Wizard but we suspect there's someone else controlling it from behind the scenes yet we lack clues to locate the real culprit."

"I see! So that rascal sent this to make fun of me."

"Yes, sir. He has a habit of mocking everyone."

"Did something happen?" Queen Tia walked in.

"The old man strikes back, _sensei_. They sent that pendant and a mocking note to Mamorou – san."

"I see. They have some sense of fashion." She ironically muttered.

"Sure thing, young miss! I'm gonna toss this away."

"Wait. I'd rather send it for analysis. It could provide a clue for all we know. And we're desperate for them."

"Alright, here you have."

"Thank you. How did this reach you?"

"A delivery using my aunt's name. Something tells me the author of this hacked into her delivery site account and had her pay for this delivery: this stupid pendant looks like something those "rebel" youth might wear to try to appeal as "cool" or "fashionable"." He fumed.

"Maybe so. I'm going to ring up the HQ. I'll be right back."

Queen Tia headed towards the backyard while Urakata grumbled something and headed towards the video editing room: the girls picked up their respective coats (navy blue for Misora and lush green for Suzuka) and headed outside the building and into the tennis court.

"Pororon. But, really. How the mighty have fallen, huh?"

"You mean that Sirius guy? Oh sure. Puppeteer become puppet."

"That King man doesn't seem to have a clear goal, right?"

"Nope. The guy just wants payback but he's an idiot to begin with."

"Obviously. Didn't realize that everyone around him was just pretending to obey him to get closer to Meteor G."

"But, say… Misora. That "Secret Empire" you've mentioned from time to time… What is it supposed to be?"

"Was. It was merely a fancy title a madwoman came up with to symbolize her rule over all of Japan's underworld. She thought she was a queen who ruled over Japan. But she was no better than that carbon copy of mine. Yet she was a hundred times more dangerous that that carbon copy. A sadist who knew no limits." Misora explained.

"Makes you wonder why there are types like those out there."

"Yeah. What exactly makes one a sadist or a masochist? Human psychology is complicated and is influenced by many factors. In Anaya's case I guess it was just the lust for power. That woman only wanted power at all costs, to stand at the peak and look down on everyone else. To that end she had that "Palace" spaceship built. To materialize her ego. And to create a closed world in which she ruled unopposed and could impose her own rules and folly. Speaking of which…"

"What?"

"The culprit used the word "humanity's folly" to refer to the "Palace" when Omega was trying to find those _shogi_ pieces… So maybe they're a Wizard? A Wizard would find it hard to understand what Anaya wanted to achieve there." She suggested.

"Pororon. Could be, yet… Maybe it's a human and was using the term to make us think like that?"

"That could be it, too." Ice agreed.

"You've got a point. Can be either of those, really."

"GROA~H!"

"AIE~H!"

They heard a roar and a guy ran off from the woods on the other side of the main alley while chased by a berserk Wizard: none of the group were particularly surprised.

"The Security Wizard found an intruder and drove him off, huh? Good."

"Maybe it was a stalker?"

"Or a _paparazzi_."

"What happened?" Queen Tia met up with them.

"An intruder got found and driven away. The Security Wizard will now send a photo the guy to the police."

"Good. If it's only some idiot, then…"

"We were discussing that maybe the real culprit is a Wizard as well given the use of the term "humanity's folly" to refer to Anaya's "Palace" but it could also be a human making we think that he or she is a Wizard." Misora explained to her.

"Hum. Good point. I'd also like to know what they're up to. I get it that he's trying to distract our attention from something but I can't spot the what."

"That secret facility with weather-changing machines can't be reused, right? It all ended up broken down, right?"

"Yes. A couple days ago Akatsuki and I scoured the place but found nothing new or nothing missing. Dust amounts remained the same so no-one had stepped there, either."

"They haven't reappeared at that old manor, right?"

"No. We've put Viruses to keep watch but no-one's come closer save for some curious types. Rumors have spread that Hyde and Shinobi were actually hiding there. Of course, we sealed all entrances to avoid people wandering inside and interfering with the surveillance."

"Well. That manor is like 2 kilometers away from the nearest village so it's no wonder most people didn't notice."

"By the way… If you need to consult with me over anything just give me a ring. I'll be glad to help you out."

"Thank you."

"It's nothing. The least I could do." She sighed and looked sad, for once.

"Ah… Did we say something we shouldn't have said?"

"No, that's not it. It's just that… Well, no – one's perfect."

There was a sudden explosion ringing out from behind the Okudama Studios building: everyone looked there and then rushed towards the backyard through the road that ran parallel to the building's right: they reached the area and spotted Sirius firing his laser at mad around the area and laughing.

"Come out, my disgraced daughter! I know you're here! I'll teach you that treason is paid with DEATH!" King laughed.

"Sheesh. Speaking of idiots…" Misora fumed.

"Suzuka. Get inside the building. Now." Queen Tia ordered.

"Roger, ma'am. Be careful!"

"And call the Satella Police while you're at it, too."

"Roger!"

"Denpa – Henkan!"

Both girls transformed and jumped into the Wave Roads: both silently aimed for Sirius' back and shot their attacks yet they were deflected by a barrier like the other day: Sirius turned around to face them.

"Hah! So you did come, Tia! And you brought Hibiki as well! I'll get rid of you disgraced children once and for all!"

"Don't tell me. Did the old man fuel your ego?"

"I don't need that old man anymore! I'll bury them!"

"So that means that you couldn't find him, either. Talk about smart. Didn't you say you were a genius, huh?" Queen Virgo mocked.

"GRRRR!" He grumbled.

"By the way. I'm sure that you haven't noticed but the old man has placed an insurance in this puppet."

"Insurance? What insurance?"

"If you try to attack him with this puppet it's going to attack you instead. He's not as stupid as to give you something that could turn upon him and bring upon his defeat."

 _I see. It's a bluff to make King lower the guard. Good,_ sensei _!_

"DAMN THEM! They all make a fool out of me! I was supposed to rule the world! To prove I'm the greatest man ever!"

"Then come down from that stupid hover-chair and fight with your hands and feet. If you can, that is. You're not a cripple, you use that to make you feel grandiose." Queen Virgo challenged.

"HMPF! No need to! This puppet will suffice!"

"If that "Crimson Dragon" couldn't defeat Rock Man do you think this puppet will be able to defeat us?" Harp Note taunted.

"T-that was a miscalculation!"

"Oh, sure. Miscalculation, indeed!"

"ENOUGH! DIE~!"

Sirius loaded up the laser and shot at them but they'd already jumped into the air.

"Aqua Dragon!"

"Shock Strings!"

Both girls attacked Sirius but the attacks were deflected by the barrier surrounding his body: the "satellites" began to gather and perform their annoying series of laser attack sequences: both girls focused on dodging or blocking those: King laughed.

"I'm INVINCIBLE~!"

"Far from it. You're a mere coward. A failure."

"FAILURE~? ME~? DAMN YOU~!"

"And that barrier isn't indestructible, either. It must have a limit of how much energy it can deflect." Harp Note added.

"It's fueled by my anger! It'll never fade out!"

"Oh come on. Not that crappy speech again. Had to hear too many times the other day!"

"Calm down, Hibiki. I understand it brings painful memories along but that can wait. First we must find a way through that barrier."

"Yes, ma'am! Let's see… Maybe a continuous attack would do it?"

"Good idea. I'll distract him. You handle the barrier."

"Roger."

"King. You're slower than a Galapagos turtle."

"What was that? I'm faster than light!"

"You aren't. Nothing can overcome light-speed. "Hyperspace" is but another plane of time-space that allows one to skip distances as if in a wormhole. It's not faster-than-light travel. You're slow… You're speed of sound, King." She dully lectured.

"NOBODY LECTURES ME~! DIE~!"

Sirius loaded up the main laser and shot it yet Queen Virgo dropped to a Wave Road below the one she was and aimed her staff at the hands: they were encompassed in ice which began to spread across the arms: Queen Virgo quickly drew an Elec Blade Battle Card and locked into the arms to warp and hit the ice with the Elec Blade: electricity travelled across them while shattering the ice: King gasped and roared.

"What the… The damage the puppet feels is transmitted to my body as well? Damned old man!"

Harp Note, in the meanwhile, had been loading a Hyper Cannon to which she'd added a tripod: it finished loading and shot a powerful stream of energy at the barrier from behind: it began to concentrate its energy on the center and the barrier's color began to slowly turn from white to grey until the attacked area shattered like glass and the blast hit Sirius' back: King roared as he apparently felt the same damage himself: the Hyper Cannon stopped firing and Harp Note sighed in relief: she spotted how the rest of the aura began to shatter and fall apart as if it was glass.

"I-impossible!"

"Now you realize that the old man lied to you the whole time? This aura is something built in a rush and an in lazy manner to give you the impression you're invincible but it has a weakness in purpose just in case you tried to delete him using this puppet." Queen Virgo mocked.

"I don't care! I'm not going anywhere until I finish you BRATS off!"

"How miserable. How the mighty have fallen."

"DIE~!"

Sirius began to shoot the main laser at wild around the area but both girls simply warped from spot to spot to dodge it: Queen Virgo aimed her staff at Sirius and several meteors fell down from the skies to then impact into Sirius from the front causing explosions and knocking him off the skies and into one of the basins on the ground: King growled.

"D-damn it! How do I get rid of this pain synchronization?"

"I don't think you'll be able to."

"Of course I can! I'm a genius!"

"Hmpf. You never were. You were skilled at building machines and systems but that's all."

"Yeah. You're but a coward who relies on proxies, anyway. Like Joker and the Meteor G." Harp Note scoffed.

"In don't need any disgraced children to lecture me~!"

"Sorry it took so long, the old man has been sabotaging Wave Roads and the Cosmo Wave, too." Acid Ace finally appeared.

"Couldn't you ask Vadous to open you a portal?"

"He's still in the midst of checking the systems and redoing the security systems to avoid anyone from hijacking his HQ."

"Last thing we'd need, truly."

"Vadous…? Zataki! I remember! That rascal! Stealing my fortune from my accounts…! I'll get it back!"

"No, you won't. He already sent it to real charities and NGOs and government programs years ago." Acid Ace shot back.

"Damn it!"

"And even if he hadn't I'm sure Anaya would've stolen it sooner or later to use it for her ego. And then would've sent an assassin to finish you off and keep the spoils for herself."

"Who the hell is that "Anaya"?"

"Figure it out yourself. Mr. Ex-genius!"

"Damn them! All of them! All of them make fun of me!"

"You brought this into yourself. And this pain is nothing to the one those children you used as spies and thieves experienced before they died. We've only let you roam around because seeing you powerless is good enough for now. It's fitting." Acid Ace coolly shot back.

"Grrrr!"

"Let's attack at once! Wing Blade!"

"Aqua Dragon!"

"Shock Strings!"

Acid Ace tackled Sirius as he began to hover again with the boost from his thrusters and had him crash against the outer wall of the building: Queen Virgo and Harp Note attacked as well and King roared as the pain was recreated on his own body.

"D-damn…! Guh… Gah…! T-this pain…!"

"Guess it's the old man's way of punishing you for trying to be smarter than him. Want to blame someone, blame the guy. If you can find the guy, that is." Acid Ace taunted.

"Damned! I'll find the old man…! And tear him to pieces…!"

A "Noise Wave" opened and Sirius fled inside: the group sighed in relief and then assessed the damage: the live stage "Real Wave" had turned off due to the damage accumulated and the projector on the ground was displaying several holographic screens: some Wave Roads were cut off, too.

"Well. Nothing that can't be repaired. Let's hope the guy will stop bothering us for a while. We need to organize the info we have insofar so there'll be a meeting today at 6PM on WAXA." Acid Ace instructed.

"Roger."

"Blood Shadow and Sigma will be in charge of keeping security around here and Kodama Town while we're in the meeting."

"Understood."

"Huff. Now let's get to work… Today's gonna be a busy morning!"

18:23 PM (Japan Time)…

"… We've all gathered?"

"Yes, Chief."

"Good. We've got news regarding Hyde and Shinobi."

"Really?"

Subaru, Misora, Akatsuki, Queen Tia, Vadous (on his civilian outfit), Dr. Yoiri, Amachi, Daigo (Subaru's father), the WAXA Chief and several Satella Police officers plus some WAXA Operators along with some Wizards had gathered around the WAXA Command Room's holographic table.

"Yes. We got reports from our Mexico City Branch. They've been doing intimidations and break-ins there and there and we believe they're employed by a powerful CEO with strong ties to the current Mexican government." Akatsuki reported.

"Mexico, huh? No wonder we didn't find them in Austria." Vadous calmly commented.

"I guess he got lured in by the promise of juicy rewards. Similar to how Virus got to hire him because he wanted his skills and his stocks of "Crimson"…" Daigo deduced.

"Yes. We've begun observing them but Shinobi is in the lookout. We can't rush things or they'll see us coming and they'll vanish off the radar again. I would say we ignore them a bit longer. Thanks to the rumor of Kurayami and Kanaya being dead he won't think of releasing them."

"Alright. Now we've got this old man to worry about. King isn't too worrisome seeing how his puppet is frail and can be easily deleted. The problem is figuring out the old man's identity and their goals." The Chief decided, sighing.

"I don't know if it'll of much help but I found that someone had intruded the space station model's cybernetics in my lab. Do you remember, Subaru? My ex-boss hid there the data on the location of the transmission module of the space station "Bonds"…"

"I remember, Amachi – san. So someone was looking for the module?"

"Yes. But it wasn't the old man. It was Ophiucus Queen."

"O-Ophiucus Queen?"

"Yes. A recreation of her but didn't seem to have any "self" per se. I had placed some layers of security and some security Wizards but she broke through them and accessed the data before leaving. That happened this morning at about 3AM."

"So the old man has also rebuilt her as a puppet, huh? Kanaya did something like that before, too."

"And that means we might stumble upon her at some point. But we only need to beat that puppet and that's it."

"Exactly."

"I see. Didn't Hyde get to "Bonds" before as well? They want to collect any "Crimson" that jumped there back when Meteor G flew past it. It's parked on orbit around Mars because it's still got some damage there and there and there's a lot of "Noise" that needs purging." Daigo realized.

"Yes, you are right. We thought it could serve as a platform to observe Mars as well. We do have orbiting satellites and surface rovers but the station can collect and store far more data. The only downside is that without its communications module the amount of data it can transmit is lower." The Chief sighed.

"Well, better that than nothing, I'd say." Dr. Yoiri shrugged.

"Huh? A call from Utagai – kun… What's up?"

"Amachi – san, sir! Trouble, sir!" Utagai Shinsuke reported.

"The enemy?"

"No, sir… It's… The incarnation of doom!"

"The… what?" Amachi frowned.

"Oh come on. It's but a good luck charm that someone forgot in the exhibit space." Cygnus sighed close by.

"Huh? Really?"

"Of course! Right?" He asked someone else.

"Utagai – san, your Wizard is right. It's but a good luck charm. I was showing it to you to see if you recognized it." A man replied, sighing.

"Ah! Is t-that so? I thought you showed it to me because it was the incarnation of doom…"

"No, sir… I don't know what the incarnation of doom is supposed to be in the first place. And something tells me there's no such thing and that it's mere superstition."

"I agree."

"Oh well. If it's nothing then don't make such a fuss over it! And here I thought the enemy was attacking!" Amachi grumbled.

"I'm sorry, sir! It's just that… I had an attack of panic!"

"Then have some tea to calm down, like you always do."

"R-roger, sir. I am sorry, sir! It shall not happen again, sir!"

"Alright. We'll talk when I get back."

"Utagai – chan needs some Spiritual Soul." Dr. Yoiri sighed.

"I am sorry, ma'am, but the name was Spiritual Brandy. And it was an ephemeral fashion that only lasted a couple of months about 7 years ago, ma'am. It consisted on adding some whisky to the brandy…" Acid calmly corrected her.

"Whisky to the brandy? People can have such weird ideas… Was that supposed to be a new cocktail?" The Chief was surprised.

"It would seem so, sir."

"Oh my. I'd mixed them up again! Thank you, Acid – chan."

"Ma'am. I don't need any "nicknames", thank you."

"But I think that…"

"Ahem, ahem." The Chief cleared this throat.

"Ah! Excuse me, Chief. One gets engrossed with a topic and such…"

"Yes, we understand that. Could we get back the meeting?"

"Of course."

"Oh well. Regarding Hyde and Shinobi we'll watch their movements for a while. If King shows up again we beat the crap outta the puppet."

"Sure. And let's find the man himself and give him some lessons. By the way, Solo didn't come… What's he doing?" Misora asked.

"He contacted me. He's gone training to the Bermuda Labyrinth and, at the same time, he's making another sweep of the sunken Mu Continent to make sure there are no "relics" that could become a threat. You never know what those Mu Sages could've come up with, anyway." Akatsuki explained.

"Wise move. And maybe it could work as bait to lure Hyde and Shinobi out of hiding. Spread rumors that a new type of OOPArt has been found there and that should make the guy run there to get his hands on it." Vadous suggested.

"That could work but let's wait a bit. If we act too soon they could see through it."

"Alright."

"What about the security improvements?" Akatsuki asked Vadous.

"We're doing all we can and insofar we've revised and redone about 80% of the security system and password patterns… I think that in another couple of days we could end the work."

"Good. It could be useful to have the "trump card" ready in case we need to take drastic measures."

"Yeah. I'm also doing maintenance on the conduits and the reactor to make sure all's working smoothly and there'll be no trouble when we try to charge it up. Tabuu's helping out there as we speak."

"Ah. It's another topic, though… Did the dismantling of the underground "cities" and those weapons factory end?"

"Yeah. I refilled the gap of the main shaft with water from a nearby lake to form a second lake. Regarding the weapons factories' islands, I made sure to plant new trees and vegetation. And I did, of course, dismantle the "creepy manor" thing plus the facility beneath it and refilled the mount with earth. The only facilities left are Mount Control and the replica of the Kamizura manor." Vadous detailed.

"Great. Well then. I'd say that's all for today. By the way, Tia… You've been pretty quiet today. Is something the matter?"

"Huh? Ah… Sorry. I just get the feeling we're overlooking something but I can't place my finger on what it is…" She admitted.

"Omicron?" Subaru suggested.

"… Hmmm… Not Omicron but something else not so far away… Oh well. Guess I'll eventually recall."

"We did scan the planet and I asked Cepheus to lend me a hand to check the underground tunnels and all. We didn't find anything. The terminal network didn't have anything, either. I'm still trying to design a dismantling plan for those tunnels as well." Vadous reported.

"The stuff at Zenay III is totally broken, right?"

"Sure. Nothing can be used. Repairs won't do. You'd have to rebuild it from scratch."

"Fine. What about Epsilon?"

"The Time-Space crack of back then removed the whole tower from the planet… There's only the remains of the fleet Tabuu used deep in the oceans… Some crushed by oceanic pressure, others are pending be warped away from there and be properly disposed of. Tabuu has been doing that but it takes time."

"Alright. So there's nothing there that could be reused against us. That's relieving. Now… Let's increase the surveillance and we should inspect "Bonds" in case the culprit's puppets or anyone else goes there to try to find any "Crimson" generated by residual "Noise". This meeting is officially concluded. You may leave." The Chief concluded.

"At times like these the Tea of Confucius should enlighten us."

"Tea of Confucius? I find no matches in the database. Must be a very recent trend, I guess." Acid muttered.

"Or maybe something Dragon came up with and that Sigma or Omega told Dr. Yoiri… Wouldn't surprise me if it were to be the case."

"Knowing the fellow… It can be the case, yeah." Akatsuki shrugged.

"But let's not get confident either. Or we'll run into trouble!"

 _Yeah._ Sensei _has a point. We must stay on our toes!_


	12. Chapter 12: Antiques

**Chapter 12: Antiques**

15:39 PM (Japan Time), Saturday March the 19th…

"… Ah…! Good… Good…! I missed this feeling…"

"Does this feel good, too?"

"Yeah…! It feels good, too…!"

"Heh, heh, heh. Beware of tickling fingers!"

"It tickles! Hah, hah, hah!"

Subaru, Tsukasa and Kiboyama were having sex amongst them in a bedroom somewhere placed inside of a cubical room.

There was a work desk nearby with some textbooks and notebooks placed atop it plus a lamp and a wooden chair placed in front of it.

A nearby door to the left lead to a small bathroom and the room's door was at the south.

There were a few light bulbs set in the ceiling that provided the illumination.

Their clothes were neatly folded and set in groups atop the chair.

Tsukasa was lying face-up as Subaru, sitting on his knees, was pulling his legs towards him and stuffing his cock inside of his ass: Kiboyama was also sitting on his knees behind Subaru and stuffing his cock into him while tickling him.

 _Well. Tsukasa – kun was the one who asked of us to have sex with him. He said he felt an urge to feel it. If it's his way of battling against the shock of the other day then we don't mind helping him out. It's been a while since we'd have one of our "threesomes", anyway._

"Ah…! Good…! This feeling…!" Tsukasa moaned and was rubbing his cock with his right hand.

"Tell me if I'm being too fast." Subaru requested.

"Don't worry… It's fine…"

"Tickle attack!"

"Hah, hah, hah! Stop tickling my waist, Gino – kun!"

Kiboyama began to tickle Subaru's waist and lick the back of his neck with the tongue: Subaru laughed as he tried to bear with the tickling.

"I think I'm about to go off…! Whoa!"

Tsukasa gasped and released white stuff from his cock: Subaru felt his ass' inner muscles closing around his cock: he moaned and released as well thus triggering Kiboyama's release as well: Subaru let go of Tsukasa's legs and let out a long sigh of relief.

"Ah…! This feeling…! Thought as much… Real sex is about this! To have the pleasure to let it out…!" Tsukasa muttered.

"Yeah… Undoubtedly…" Subaru agreed.

"Sure thing… That stuff can't be called "sex"… It's plain torture! Mere rape!"

"Well. True, that's what it was, yet… There are people who do it of their free will and enjoy it nevertheless. Just because we've met some guys who abuse of that it doesn't mean that BDSM itself is wrong per se." Subaru warned them.

"Ah. You've got a point."

"There are always people who abuse of things. And thus distort the image of things but we mustn't lose track of the original purpose behind their invention."

"Yeah… You're right. It's just that…" Tsukasa sighed.

"I know. That of the other day was painful. It's obvious that we'll feel its sequels for some time. But that doesn't mean we must blame those who came up with the idea. They didn't have bad intentions. They just wanted to invent new and exciting forms of plays involving sex."

"Yeah. Oh well. Let's resume. Let's see… How about this? You, Subaru – kun, switch places with Tsukasa – kun. And in the meanwhile we have a six-nine. Deal?" Kiboyama suggested.

"Sure. What about you, Tsukasa – kun?"

"Alright. I want to stuff it inside of one of you as well, so…"

"Then let's get on the move."

Kiboyama recoiled to draw his stiffened cock out of Subaru's ass and Subaru did the same with Tsukasa: the latter sat on his knees and climbed out of the bed along with Kiboyama as Subaru laid face-up on the right side of the bed: Tsukasa sat on his knees in front of his legs while Kiboyama placed his knees at the sides of Subaru's head: he arched forward and grabbed Subaru's cock with the right hand to harden in: Tsukasa grabbed and pulled up and forward Subaru's legs to slid his cock forward and push it against the ass: he began to slowly stuff it inside and stopped when he reached the full way in.

"I'm going to move!"

"Go!"

"Alright. Here I go!"

Tsukasa started sliding in and out: Kiboyama lowered his body and took Subaru's cock into his mouth while using both hands to lean on the bed: Subaru began to suck Kiboyama's cock at the same time: Tsukasa looked ecstatic as he moaned and moved his body back and forth.

 _Tsukasa – kun seems to be savoring the moment. That's good. I thought he might be afraid of having sex as a result of the tortures but it'd seem he's managing to handle those. He's slowly recovered but according to Master he still has episodes of panic at nighttime so Blood's keeping him company to calm him down. He rejected Master's offer to use the chip implant to lock some of the loathsome memories saying he doesn't want to run away or feel like a coward… That's very brave of him!_

"Ah…! I think that I'm about to… go off… Here it goes!"

 _Good, good! Let it off, Tsukasa – kun! You'll feel better!_

Tsukasa moaned and released inside of Subaru's ass: he let out a long sigh of pleasure: Subaru then noticed how his cock went off and filled Kiboyama's mouth with white stuff: his own mouth was also filled with stuff by Kiboyama's cock: Kiboyama pushed himself upwards and opened his mouth to let some mix of saliva and white stuff fall down and slide down Subaru's stiffening cock: Subaru felt how white stuff slid down his friend's cock and inside of his mouth to mix on with the stuff he already had there.

 _Good flavor, as usual… We needed something to calm down._

"I think we should… leave it at here…" Tsukasa suggested.

"Alright. If you don't feel like keeping on then let's stop here. We should have a quick shower each one to cleanse up before dressing back. Do you agree, Subaru – kun?"

"Sure. You go first, Tsukasa – kun. This is your room, after all."

"Thanks. I'll be done in a flash."

Tsukasa stood up and headed for the bathroom: he shut the door while Subaru and Kiboyama picked up a large plastic sheet they'd placed over the bed to avoid staining the sheets: Subaru held it up as Kiboyama used handkerchiefs to cleanse the remaining white stuff on his cock: he helped Subaru do the same and they threw them into a paper bag: Tsukasa came out while wrapping a towel around his waist.

"Done."

"Ok. I'll cleanse the plastic and then leave it for drying so that we can reuse it next time." Subaru nodded.

He headed into the bathroom which had a small shower, a sink and a toilet: he closed the door and entered the shower with the sheet on his hands: he hung it from a hook in the wall and sprayed it with water while applying soap to it to cleanse it up: once it was clean he used the shower on himself to cleanse up the sweat.

 _Oh well. We had our while of fun and I helped clear up some mistaken ideas… I'll dress up and ask Boss if we've got any news. Things have been quiet ever since yesterday but I'm afraid trouble will soon show up. But we mustn't let that frustrate us._

He finished showering and picked a towel to dry up: he came out and Kiboyama walked in next: Tsukasa had dressed up with his usual clothes and was fixing the bed's sheets.

"Maybe we could go to the theater soon."

"Yeah. I heard they're projecting an interesting blockbuster film. I'll check out the timetables." Subaru agreed.

"Today I'll finish the remaining homework."

"OK."

Subaru silently dressed up on his usual clothes and stretched: Kiboyama came out and also dressed up: an alarm suddenly rang out.

"Warning. High levels of "Noise" detected. Warning. High levels of "Noise" detected. Location: Control Bridge. Warning."

"What?" They all gasped.

"… "Noise" levels down to normal. Cancelling emergency state. Computing… Warning. Unidentified signature in Observation Deck #4. Signature is a Denpa body. Containment field engaged. Jamming devices activated. Do not leave the rooms. Warning."

"What's going on?" Tsukasa wondered.

"Hyde and Shinobi?" Kiboyama wondered.

"But it didn't say "two" signatures. A proxy of the old man, then? Or maybe it's King's puppet?"

"They found this place?"

"If the old man could sneak in then he knows how to find this place. Oh boy." Subaru sighed.

"Better stay in the rooms, guys. That King jerk popped up here and Boss is quarreling with the guy." Omega told them.

"So that's why there were high levels of "Noise"… He opened a Noise Wave right in the Control Bridge!" Subaru guessed.

"Yeah. Well, I don't think Boss will have much difficulty dealing with the guy but just to be safe I'm going to stand by."

"Roger."

"And, yeah, Dragon made up that of the Confucius Tea. It'd seem Sigma's the one who told Dr. Yoiri about it." Omega added.

"Thought as much." Subaru wasn't surprised.

"What about Storm and Miles?" Tsukasa asked.

"I have them on standby as well just to make sure."

"OK." Kiboyama nodded in agreement.

"Let's wait and see."

16:02 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Give me back my fortune! Zataki!"

"Akatsuki already told you I got rid of it YEARS ago."

"No! You've got it! My instinct tells me!"

"Your instinct didn't help you foresee that Heartless was using you and she would backstab you. Because you're the egoistic type who only cares about himself."

"Grrrr!"

"So? Got anything that can impress me? And, besides… You didn't find this place on your own. The old man told you. Right?"

"GRRRR!"

Vadous (wearing his armor suit) was wielding a couple of swords as he dodged Sirius' attacks inside of a box-shaped room with a large viewing crystal on the southern wall that allowed one to witness Earth from orbital attitude: he was hardly impressed by King's ramblings or his feeble attacks which he easily dodged.

"To begin with! Who the hell are you?"

"Oh come on. I've been around for over 4 years and NOW you ask who I am? What have you been doing all this time? A trip around the world to explore the cheapest restaurants?" He sarcastically asked.

"I'm no longer human! I don't need to eat!"

"That's sarcasm. Guess you never were one for it."

"Silence! Answer me!"

"And what if I don't feel like it? Huh? What'll you do?"

"I'll force you to confess!"

"Veritaserum?"

"Verita-what? What the hell is that? Some new fashion brand?"

"Oh, forget it. I was muttering to myself." Vadous rolled his eyes.

"You're suspicious! How did you build this without me noticing?"

"I'm discrete. And I knew about your space station but at the time I was busy dealing with other stuff, else I'd leaked your location the instant you'd gotten there." Vadous shrugged.

"How the hell do you have tech I don't know about?"

"Because you only have interest in tech involving "Noise" and "Crimson" to begin with. I'm sure you don't know how a particle accelerator works like or what's it supposed to do, right?"

"Grrrr!"

"Looks like I hit the mark. And, besides… You can't run from here since I set up jammers and this field. This energy field isn't data so your beam can't erase it to begin with."

"I'm invincible!"

"Huff! You're stupid, you know? Everyone says the same. And they aren't! No – one and nothing is! You airhead!"

"AIRHEAD? ME? DAMN YOU! DIE~!"

Sirius loaded up the laser and shot it at Vadous but he crossed his blades to form an "X" and made the attack break down into several lasers that curved and went back at the source, busting the "satellites" and momentarily stunning the enemy: Vadous simply rushed forward while aiming the blades forward and plunged them into the chest: King roared as he felt the same pain on his own body.

"Kuh…! As much as I try I can't remove this stupid program! It's like it's spread its roots inside of my data body!" He growled.

"That's what happens for allowing someone as sneaky as that old man to mess with your body. That means you were pretty desperate to obtain power at all costs."

"Damn it! That old man sends Viruses that act as messengers and they self-delete after they play their pre-recorded messages! I don't have anything to figure out his location! I know he's using Viruses to spy on me but I can't know which of all those that lurk inside of Noise Waves are the spies! I've tried catching them all and turns out none was a spy!"

"I see. We've done the same, too, but we got no clues either."

"Isn't it that Virus Daemon man, anyway?"

"Nope. Virus is dead. Without doubt." Vadous quickly replied.

"Then who the hell is it?"

"Someone who's borrowing his name and pretending to be a thug of the "Secret Empire". I'm sure he doesn't give a crap about their leftovers and is using their name to get info and gain connections. And maybe to get access to specific resources."

"Grrrr! I'd like to crush them!"

"Don't we all?"

"But I don't intend to work with you!"

"I never said that I wanted you to do so, anyway. I'd rather figure out who they are and lock them up. You'd rather kill them, I guess." Vadous dully guessed.

"Indeed! To make them pay for such humiliation! But first I'll make them suffer! I'll have them pay for this pain!"

"That remains to be seen. Depends on who finds him first. Maybe you should go ask a seer?" He ironized.

"Nonsense!"

"Who knows? Maybe he or she provide useful insight."

"I know it!" King suddenly said.

"Know… what?"

"That you're an invader from another planet!"

"Oh come on. Invader from another planet? Sure, sure. What about the FMs? Weren't they the invaders from another planet?"

"Hmpf! They were but the scout force! You're the real invasion force! With all those ships you own!"

"I did have those in the past but I don't own them anymore. Several types have recreated them but I'm unrelated to those. There was an "invasion" of sorts a little while ago but that was done by someone else."

"Huh? Then who was it?"

"Figure it out yourself. If you can, that is."

"Damn you! You damned invader!"

"Sheesh. I'm no invader. I only own this spaceship, Omega, Sigma and Blood. That's it. And Tabuu's but my business partner. And both the Satella Police and WAXA know this ship's orbit."

"Hmpf! Fools, all of them!"

"Oh boy…"

"Sorry to butt into your chat, Boss, but… The old man left a printed message inside of one of Dragon's books about Confucius. It's in Chinese so I'm translating it for you…" Omega called out from outside of the room all of a sudden.

"Dragon? Confucius? What the hell?"

"You shut up and do yourself a favor."

"HUH? Myself a favor?" King didn't seem to catch the irony.

"… "I am but one of the king's buffoons. You needn't wait much longer. My fellow buffoons will show set up the stage in which I shall make my rise to fame. And then you will despair."…"

"One of my buffoons?" King wondered.

"It doesn't mean you specifically. It means a king in general, could be anyone. But it doesn't have to be a real king. It's a way of speaking. He's trying to appeal as being unimportant. Guess it's the guy's own type of irony." Vadous fumed.

"Fellow buffoons…? I don't know if to take this literally or treat it as a shitty prank." Omega grumbled.

"Fool! You lowered the guard! Die!"

Sirius loaded up the laser and shot it at close range but it deflected when hitting an invisible obstacle and hit the "satellites" which blew up: King grumbled while Vadous was ignoring him.

"Don't ignore me! Zataki!"

"Huh? Ah. My bad, but I'm trying to reach a decision. I'm busy. Go play Monopoly and see if you end up richer or poorer."

"Don't make fun of me! Zataki!"

"Huff. Zataki is a civilian alias I use. My name is Vadous, in case you didn't already know. Now go collect carrots and make carrot juice to offer to Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes."

"Bugs Bunny? Looney Tunes? What are you talking about?"

"Huff! I'm busy! The old man will soon do something, I'm sure of it! If you don't want to be laughed at then go try find him. Something tells me he's in Hawaii trying to learn Hawaiian dance!" He tried to shoo him away with some pretext.

"Hawaii, eh? Fine! I'll bury him yet!"

Vadous silently picked a Hunter – VG he carried on his belt and inputted some commands: a purple-colored "portal" formed behind Sirius and he got sucked inside before it closed: Vadous sighed in relief and came out of the room into a curved corridor with arches, doors on both sides and lit by fluorescent tubes.

"There! Sent him to Hawaii. Let's hope he spends some days trying to find the rascal there."

"Yeah. Let's hope so. What a guy, though! Bothered to write it in Chinese and bothered to stuff several pages ahead of the last page that Dragon had read… I still can't figure out what he hopes to achieve."

"I think Queen Tia's idea that he's distracting us from something is close to the right track. But I can't figure out what it's supposed to be. We did go over all potentially dangerous stuff we could be overlooking on yesterday's evening." Vadous brought the right hand to his chin and looked pensive.

"Yeah. Huff. We'll end up in an endless loop at this rate. I'll go patrol and ask Akatsuki if he's got news regarding Hyde and Shinobi."

"Yeah. Do so. Wait… Buffoons? Maybe he means Hyde and Shinobi? Hyde does call Shinobi a buffoon from time to time, right?"

"Now that you mention it… Go check on them just in case."

"Roger. Maybe the guy will motivate them to start up a fuss."

"Wouldn't surprise me if he did, anyways!"

19:37 PM (Japan Time)…

"… That was a pretty fun movie."

"Yeah. Had its "no way this'll happen in real life" scenes but if you ignore that feeling then it's a film you can enjoy."

"Thanks for the invitation, Misora."

"Don't mind, Suzuka. The only inconvenient is these disguises but it can't be helped."

"Pororon. Can't say it wasn't interesting."

"Well. It was decent."

Misora and Suzuka came out of the Roppondo Hills' Cinema Plaza while chatting amongst them: Harp and Ice were also chatting amongst them.

Misora wore a brown cap and reading glasses: she'd put on color contacts to disguise her eye color as brown and a blonde wig as well.

Suzuka was using a black wig and glasses as well.

"Hah!"

"Woah!"

"HUH?"

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah… This is as far as you come…"

"You! Shinobi!"

"History repeats itself! With this new heroine role I will lure that damned brat here and put an end to him! Mwah, hah, hah!"

Phantom Black suddenly swept through the area from behind them and caught Suzuka before flying upwards: Assassin Shinobi landed in front of Misora and drew his blade while laughing: Phantom Black ran across the Wave Roads until he reached the top of TK Tower and left Suzuka on the floor before looking down at the surroundings.

"Hibiki. You go and help your friend. I'll handle this buffoon."

"Roger, _sensei_!"

"Who…? Sheesh. Queen Virgo!"

Queen Virgo landed behind Assassin Shinobi and he grumbled: Misora used the opening to transform into Harp Note and she jumped into the Wave Roads to head for the TK Tower top: Phantom Black chuckled and snapped his fingers: "black holes" formed on several spots of the Wave Roads and copies of his "Phantom Claw" popped out to try to capture her: she fought them back with a Sword Fighter Battle Card and her own attacks as well: Phantom Black gloated.

"Useless, useless!"

"I wonder about that."

"Who…? Damn! You! Blood Shadow!"

"Yeah. Eat this!"

BLAM!

"OUGAH!"

"Chance!"

Blood Shadow silently landed behind Phantom Black and when he turned to face him he unloaded his loaded shotgun into Phantom Black: he got pushed backwards by the blast and Harp Note quickly warped to the top and helped Suzuka stand up.

"Are you alright?"

"Thank you."

"Sheesh. You and your antiques, Hyde… Did you think recreating your debut would help you win? You're as bad at math as you've ever been, huh? You forget that there's tons of DH users nowadays. Subaru – kun needn't bother come and stick to your lame b-grade scenario." Harp Note sighed, annoyed.

"Of course." Blood Shadow shrugged.

"Grrr! That tactic was supposed to be perfect!"

"Supposed being the keyword here."

"You disgraced valet! What are you doing?"

"That Queen Virgo's keeping me busy! I don't have time to create a double either!" Assassin Shinobi replied in a rush.

"Sheesh!"

"If only you'd stayed in London playing Shakespeare… Phantom White must be laughing at you."

"Who?" He frowned.

"Your King Land cousin."

"I have a King Land cousin?"

"Oh, sure. And he calls himself Haidus of Austria and says he's the descendant of Charles I of Austria, the last emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He's spending a season in London to perfect his Shakespeare skills." Blood Shadow told him.

 _I see. You made this tale up to make him get obsessed and run to London. I guess that we still lack enough evidence to arrest that Mexican CEO that's hired Hyde. You need to stall for time and you came up with this._

"By all the…! Shinobi! Forget the woman! We need to get to London immediately! My cousin wants to steal the throne from me! This is more important than settling the score with those brats! Get on the move, you disgraced valet come from southern lands!"

"R-roger!"

"Let them go, Queen Virgo. It's part of a plan." Blood Shadow whispered over the radio.

"Understood."

"W-wait for me, Hyde – sama~!"

"Just you wait, you imposter! I'll expose you~!"

Phantom Black ran away followed by Assassin Shinobi: Harp Note jumped down with Suzuka in tow and landed in the ground behind the TK Tower: there was a sound and she turned around to spot Phantom Black emerging from one of those "black holes" on the ground: he suddenly attacked her with the "Phantom Claw": she didn't have time to react so she was caught by it: Phantom Black silently jumped upwards and climbed back to the top as Harp Note struggled to break free: Queen Virgo formed an "ice dragon" and its sharp body, sharp as a knife, cut the arm of the "Phantom Claw" thus making it get deleted.

"Odd. Why would he come back? The bluff didn't work?" She wondered aloud.

"Ah! _Sensei_! Behind you!"

"What…? Kuh!"

Phantom Black suddenly appeared behind her and used the "Phantom Claw" to catch her: Blood Shadow used a Sword Fighter Battle Card to cut it: Phantom Black turned invisible and Blood Shadow began to scan the surroundings: they heard a shriek and they saw him standing atop the antenna with Suzuka caught in the "Phantom Claw" which he held over the abyss.

"Damn. Any fake move and he'll drop her!" Blood Shadow hissed.

"This behavior is odd. He's too silent." Queen Virgo muttered.

"Yeah. And where's Shinobi, anyway?"

"Good point."

"Which means that… This is a puppet and it's the old man's handiworks again. Must be dissatisfied with how Hyde gave up so easily and wants to make the show more dramatic." Blood Shadow grumbled.

"Blood. I'm coming there. I'll cut the arm and you standby below there to catch her." Omega ordered through the radio.

"Roger, sir."

Blood Shadow turned invisible and took position on a Wave Road some meters below Suzuka: Omega suddenly turned visible and slashed the "Phantom Claw": it got deleted and Suzuka began to fall but Blood Shadow jumped upwards and caught her: he landed on a ledge of the tower while Omega began to fight the Phantom Black copy: the copy silently tried to counter-attack by using "black holes" and making several other copies spawn simultaneously: Blood Shadow and the others put some distance between them and the tower just in case.

"What an evening!" Suzuka fumed.

"Yeah. The old man and his stupid dramatics."

"I feel praised. Heh, heh, heh."

"Speaking of the devil…"

The old man suddenly appeared as a hologram while holding a holographic volume of _Hamlet_ on his hands.

"… To be or not to be – that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them. To die – to sleep – no more." He read aloud.

"We're so _impressed_." They all drily shot back.

"Heh, heh, heh. The day to settle the score is near. We're about to reach the climax. And then the Ultra Beats will come from the Ultra Space and take control of the four islands of the Alola Region." The old man snickered.

"Hmpf… I dunno what you mean and I couldn't care less." Blood Shadow fumed.

"Soon you will curse your own abilities as they turn against you and bring you a painful death."

"We're so _scared_. You mean that you'll use these carbon copies of yours to give us headaches along with that stupid puppet that you gave to King… Get lost." Harp Note fumed, unimpressed.

"I know you're trying to focus our attention into you instead of something else. And I'll eventually realize what it is." Queen Virgo told him.

"Hmpf. Like I care. It's too late to stop the wheels of fate. And by a sleep to say we end the heartache, and the thousand natural shocks that their flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation, devoutly to be wish'd."

"Just get lost already. And tell this to Hyde."

"Heh, heh, heh. Reckless and impatient youth… Your impatience shall bring you down."

The hologram vanished as Omega met up with them.

"Oh well. It's only a matter of hours until we get the evidence we need."

"Excellent. Let's catch those two clowns, King, and this guy comes next."

 _I'm not going to let the guy who harmed my friend run loose anymore!_


	13. Chapter 13: Blackness

**Chapter 13: Blackness**

06:45 AM (Japan Time), Sunday March the 20th…

"… Listen up, you fools! The end is near! And today that which you despite the most will come haunt you!"

"Sheesh. It's not even 7 AM and this guy shows up atop the building totaunt us? What a rascal!"

"Calm down, Shidou. And we can hardly do anything since it is but a hologram."

"I know! But we can find the origin of it!"

"I'll cover you."

"Thanks."

The old man showed up atop the WAXA building and began to taunt everyone around the area: Acid Ace grumbled as he climbed up the Wave Roads to head there along with Queen Virgo.

"Excellent! Two eyesores to take out!" A familiar voice laughed.

"Sheesh."

A "Noise Wave" opened and Sirius came out with the laser already loaded: it shot towards the two of them but they jumped to the sides to avoid as it cut through several of the Wave Roads: the old man chuckled and brought up the tome of _Hamlet_.

"… To die – to sleep. To sleep – perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub! For in that sleep of death what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, must give us pause. There's the respect that makes calamity of so long life." He began to read up.

"Oh come on! Don't lecture us, geezer! Go lecture Hyde! We're busy dealing with this moron!"

"You don't impress anyone anymore, old man."

"I wonder about that."

"Don't ignore me! You disgraced brats!"

"You're the disgraced brat, King!"

"BRAT? ME? DAMN YOU! Groa~h!"

King roared and several black copies of Sirius began to form around the area and shoot black lasers around to cut off the Wave Roads and delete any programs they found on their wake: the old man cackled as both struggled to seize footing to fight in mid-air: there was a sound and its hologram suddenly vanished as Jack Corvus held up the spherical projector closed inside of a transparent plastic case.

"There. Now you shut up." He grumbled.

"For who would bear the whips and the scorn of time, th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, the pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay, the insolence of office and the spurns that patient merit of th' unworthy takes, when he himself might his quietus make with a bare bodkin?"

"What? Oh, come on. This is _ridiculous_."

He spun around to see five holograms all reciting at the same time so he quickly began to capture the spherical projectors: he noticed something closing in from behind and quickly flew up as a black laser hit he area where he'd been at: one of the "black" Sirius copies had tried to attack him: Jack Corvus formed purpled flames beneath his right palm and flung them at the copy: it ignited in contact and began to burn and break down into "black paint".

"I knew it. It's a mass of paint. Which means that it's highly flammable! Oi! _Neechan_! Akatsuki! Use fire on the black ones!" He radioed.

"Good finding, Jack! Let's do this!"

"I knew it was a good idea to keep some Battle Cards of multiple attributes. I suspected they'd eventually come in handy!" Queen Virgo muttered.

"Wha~t? Damn you, old man! You tricked me!" King cursed through the puppet Sirius.

"Hmpf! You're the fool who didn't see it coming! You're so desperate for power that you bow your head in front of me because you want more of it, at any cost!" The voice rang out from nowhere.

"Grrrr!"

"Who would these fardels bear, to grunt and sweat under a weary life, but that the dread of something after death – the undiscover'd country, from whose bourn no traveler returns – puzzles the will, and makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does not make cowards of us all, and thus the native hue of resolution, is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, and enterprises of great pith with this regard these currents turn awry and lose the name of action." The old man finished reading up.

"And? What was the point of that?" Acid Ace tried asking.

"Who knows? Maybe I felt like it." The man's voice cackled.

"Trouble, Akatsuki – san! Black copies have shown up here in Kodama Town, too! We're trying to deal with them!" Gonta reported over Acid Ace's radio.

" _Great_ , just _great_. Do what you can! I'm busy with these rascals here. But I guess Omega and the others are getting in the move by now. They should reach the place soon…"

"This is Strong! I've managed to get rid of some of them but they keep on coming!"

"Urakata from Okudama Studios! Our security Wizards and the Satella Police Wizards are handling some but we lack a strong defender! Misora said she's on her way here from home but we need a helping hand! The shield won't hold them at bay much longer!"

"Alright, gotcha! Utagai – san! You go help there! I'll send Crown Thunder there as well!"

"A-alright." Utagai gulped.

"Calm down." Cygnus told him.

"I'm helping Gonta deal with these stupid things, too." Rock Man reported as well.

"Good."

"Damn it! You said that was an exclusive ability that only I could use!"

"I never said that, you fool. You came up with that out of your vain ego and arrogance." The old man scoffed.

"Found you!" A voice rang out from King's end.

"Who the hell are you? Another of Zataki's men?"

"Zataki? Ah. You mean Vadous. Well, no. We cooperate but I'm not one of his men per se. I'm the FM King, Cepheus!"

"Wha~t? But you got blown up by that Rock Man brat!"

"I never was. My weapon was. You seem to get your facts wrong to begin with, King. Oh well. Like it matters. I brought reinforcements so any tricks you employ are in vain."

"Hmpf! I've got these!"

"More of the childish black copies? Huff. Be gone!"

There were some sounds and King grumbled: he'd surely tried to use the copies but Cepheus had managed to beat them.

"I've got another ace up my sleeves! Come! Crimson Dragon! Destroy them!"

"GROA~H!"

"Another copy of that thing? How many times have we seen over the last few years, anyway? 3? 4?" Acid Ace sighed.

"What! It wasn't an exclusive ability of mine either?"

"I never said that. Becoming a Denpa body didn't fix your brain, huh? How pathetic." The old man was getting annoyed, for once.

"Shut up!"

"Magician's Freeze!"

"Atomic Blazer!"

"Elemental Cyclone!"

"Ah. So the "reinforcements" are the AM Sages." Acid Ace guessed.

"Who the hell!"

"We are the former Satellite Administrators." Pegasus Magic calmly announced.

"What! It wasn't a conglomerate?"

"No." Leo Kingdom drily replied.

"You seem to be unable to process data in a proper manner. You are mixing up data from there and there." Dragon Sky analyzed.

"In short. He's senile." Acid Ace deduced.

"SENILE~? ME~? DAMN YOU~!"

"Chance! Finalize! Black End Galaxy!"

Acid Ace turned into his "Finalize" form and used the "Black End Galaxy" attack on Sirius: he slashed the puppet and it got cut off in two halves which were blown away by the collapsing black hole's energy: Queen Virgo then sent two "Aqua Dragons" to catch them and further attack them to ensure they were deleted.

"Impossible! My grand invincible vessel!" King roared.

"It wasn't neither of those. It was a mere puppet. Like those youth have been telling you over and over again." The old man looked rather disappointed by now.

"You told me that…!"

"I never told you that. Unlike you, I make sure to record what I said and did and keep it as evidence. Like how Jack Norman recorded the deal with Morgan Landsale in case the latter attempted to betray him. And that recording brought upon Landsale's downfall from power." He drily lectured King.

"Damn! I'm off this mad place!"

"Not so fast. Magician's Freeze!"

"Ugoah!"

"There. You cannot escape now. And you cannot use your "abilities" anymore. I detected how the program that allowed you to do so self-deleted at the same time that puppet got deleted." Leo Kingdom announced.

"You have been let loose for too long. It is time you faced punishment for all those lives you stole and all the harm you inflicted."

"Agreed. Can you come seize the man, Akatsuki?"

"Delighted!"

A "Noise Wave" opened so Acid Ace jumped inside to find King trapped inside of a mass of ice that Pegasus Magic had spawned to stop him from fleeing: Cepheus and the other two AM Sages were standing close by and looking on.

"Alright! King! You're under arrest in the name of the Satella Police for data destruction, hoax, fraud, intentioned murder, attempted murder of a Satella Police officer, kidnapping, blackmail, bribing… What else? Ah, yes. And, also… For hijacking of private property, private property damage, governmental property damage, terrorism, organized crime organization involvement and resistance to the authority!" Acid Ace listed.

"E~H?" He gasped in disbelief.

"I'm sure the prosecutors will be able to make a more detailed list of charges, though." He added.

"Impossible! I'm above all of you!"

"No, you aren't. You're a mere civilian. You're no military and no government official. Don't worry. We'll make sure that the whole world can see your trial in live."

"NO!" He gasped again.

"You deserve that. And more. But the judge will decide on what you really deserve. I guess the answer's life sentence, though. Feel the weight of your sins on your body! Help me push this thing outside and we'll ready a special temporary cell for this guy."

"Understood."

Pegasus Magic beat his wings and the mass of ice detached from the ground to start hovering and then be sent outside of the "Noise Wave": it hit the floor and shattered so King fell off his hover-chair: two officers grabbed him and handcuffed him while another two grabbed the hover-chair.

"Well, well. Not feeling like the king of the world anymore, eh?" One drily taunted.

"Lucifer will reap your damned lives!"

"Oh, sure. We'll bring a sorcerer to cast a spell on him. He'll become a frog and no-one will fear him anymore." Another ironically replied.

They brought King inside of the building while the group reunited in the main square: the three defenders undid their "DH" and sighed in relief while the old man remained silent and looked mildly satisfied with the outcome.

"All the copies suddenly broke apart!" Rock Man reported.

"Same here." Harp Note added.

"It must be my charm to repel evil spirits!" Cygnus Wing exclaimed with relief.

"Well… Dunno." Wolf Forest muttered.

"Hah! My might made them flee! Hah! What cowards!" Crown Thunder cackled.

"Buku? True. They're gone." Cancer Bubble muttered.

"Huh? What? It's already over? Pity. I was just getting started." Goat Kung-Fu muttered next.

"Buro~! I wouldn't lower the guard!" Ox Fire warned.

"Good point, Gonta. The old man is strangely quiet."

"Say… This one's not a hologram but a Denpa body. Maybe we can ask Pegasus Magic to…?" Queen Tia whispered.

"Alright…"

Akatsuki directed his eyes at Pegasus Magic and he seemed to understand what he meant: he looked southwards and seemed about to leave when the circle formed beneath the old man and he got suddenly trapped inside of the mass of ice: Cepheus quickly warped there and tried to scan the old man.

"It's hollow. It's but a puppet indeed. But there's no control signal right now. Maybe the culprit found something else to handle and abruptly cut off the signal… There are no logs, either. They self-deleted very recently… But there must be something else, I guess." He reported.

"What about you, Acid?"

"I agree with Cepheus' conclusions. But it's picking me… I managed to retrieve a portion of a transmissions log and the encoding used is one we employed here at WAXA a few years ago."

"Must've stolen it. Maybe he's got it from ever since then."

"Hum. Could be."

"A report from the Mexico Branch has come in. They arrested the CEO with the cooperation of the International HQ but Hyde and Shinobi aren't in the old manor he lent them." An officer rushed out.

"Maybe he went to London following Blood Shadow's history about that cousin?" Akatsuki tried to guess.

"Reports from King Land Branch say that they did spot him there yesterday poking his noses in every theater and theater club in the city of London but then they lost track of him."

"Hum. Maybe he found a hideout there. Let's keep our eyes open and spread rumors about that "Haidus"… Let's say he's been to Oxford and Cambridge as of late." Akatsuki suggested.

"YO! YO! YO! What are those? Are they heavy metal bands? They can't beat my charisma! YO!"

"HUH? No way!"

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah, hah. We're back to rum and drum and slum and plum!"

Two familiar voices rang out and they saw that Moon Disaster and War – Rock were standing in one of the cliffs to the SW of the building's front: Akatsuki groaned and the others did the same (save Acid, Cepheus, and the AM Sages).

"Yo~! King! Been a while! Ya been rumblin' and beatin'?"

"I don't know what that means and I couldn't care less."

"YO! YO! YO! What's this? Confucius New Year?" Moon Disaster grinned as he looked at the AM Sages.

"You mean _Chinese_ New Year. And that was last month!"

"Oh, really? Well, it doesn't matter! YO! YO! YO!"

"How the hell did you get out of the server this time around?" Akatsuki demanded.

"Dunno. A moment ago we woke up and there was a door set there that said "party hall"…" War Rock shrugged.

"The old man! So that's why he was so silent all of a sudden! He had these two in store!" Jack grumbled.

"I see." Queen Tia fumed.

"Yo! Subari~! Is the triangle prospering?"

"That's none of your business, Rock!" Rock Man replied with some annoyance.

"And then the rockin' cracklin' smashin' mouse beat the hipyin' jumpin' matchin' horse!" Moon Disaster began to dance.

"Followed by Jobs beating Gates!"

"What's this ruckus? By all the…" Vadous growled over the radio.

"The old man placed something hidden in the system that didn't stand out and set up things to let these two free again!"

"Last thing we needed." Blood Shadow sighed.

"Hey! Rock! Been a while! Let's roar!" Sigma laughed.

"Shut up, Sigma! Now's not the time for that!" Omega hissed.

"Y-yes, sir!" He gulped.

"Fighting each other, eh?" The old man reappeared atop one of the nearby mountains.

"And what if. We never said we're perfect." Queen Tia shot back.

"Hmpf. That's a fact I can't deny, it'd seem. But it doesn't matter that much. There'll soon be more tragedies!"

"This is far from being a tragedy." Acid shot back.

"Don't tell me. Speaker of political intentions."

"I am not a speaker!" Acid got annoyed, for once.

"Crap." Akatsuki muttered.

"Regretting your ironic statements and titles, Akatsuki? You came up with them!"

"I did! And now go drink soda!"

"Hmpf! You lack artistic instinct! But it doesn't matter, anyway. The preparations for the climax are 99% done. All that's left is for my fellow buffoons to start it up. Which they'll do in another few minutes. Heh, heh, heh." The old man grinned.

"So that's why we can't find them! You're directing them to start up another of their antiques somewhere."

"Who's that?" War Rock wondered.

"Uncle Sam! YO! YO! YO!"

"You come later! That old man goes first!" Vadous grumbled.

"What? Ya sayin' that old man is far more important than us? That's not fair! We're the Cosmic Duo!"

"Ever since _when_?" Rock Man annoyingly asked.

"Since 666 BCE! Subari~!"

"Oh, _please_. Can't you do something constructive?"

"Dunno what that means! I just came to Earth to have fun! Blame your old man for saying it was a huge party hall!"

"I NEVER said that! I just said that I thought you'd get along with Subaru! I never said anything about party halls!" Daigo complained.

"Oho. The Grand Miscalculation (daigosan) has come!"

"Will you quit it with that lame nickname? I didn't miscalculate the route back to Earth! I just happened to discover Meteor G on my way there and jumped inside to try to impede it from crashing into Earth!"

"Yeah. Stop making fun of Dad and all his efforts, Rock! Don't you ever feel ashamed at your behavior?" Rock Man sighed.

"Blame Voldy!"

"Who?"

"Voldy! Voldemort!"

"I dunno who Voldemort is or was and I'm pretty sure he or she are unrelated!"

"Obviously! It's just a fictional character! Must've found it on my servers since I store data about various emblematic fictional characters across the ages!" Vadous fumed.

"News from the Austria Branch! Hyde and Shinobi have seized the Parliament in Vienna and have taken the whole Austrian Government hostage! Including the other political parties as well!" A new officer rushed out to tell them the news.

"By all the… So that's what the "drama" was about!"

"Catching up?" The old man sneered.

"And they demand Rock Man to come and face Hyde in a one-to-one match else they'll behead a hostage every 45 minutes!"

"Devil. But, wait… Isn't it late night at Austria right now? Why is the Parliament reunited? Don't they normally end the sessions at the evening around dinner time?" Akatsuki frowned.

"It'd seem there's a prolonged debate about the foreign politics of the nation and the opposition party is trying to strike a deal with other parties to pass off a new bill regulating their representatives' income… And the head of the opposition party insists that it must be approved today." The officer explained to them.

"Lovely." Vadous grumbled.

"Looks like I'll have to go there. Well, even if they attempt some dirty trick I've got some aces up my sleeves ready."

"Hyde and the _ninja_ rascal? Good timing! I was itching to beat the score with 'em! I'm gonna beat 'em on my own!"

"You aren't! Fool! Back to the server! Both of you!"

"W-wait!"

"YO! YO! YO! I'm outta here~!"

A "portal" opened behind the duo and they were sucked in despite Moon Disaster's attempt at running away.

"There! Locked them up again."

"I'll go there as backup." Solo suddenly appeared next to Akatsuki and the others.

"Whoa! Solo! Been a while."

"Yeah. Was going over every last inch of the Mu Continent to make sure there was nothing dangerous there."

"Alright. I'm sending Blood as well."

"You seem to have a lot of free time in your hands now… Let's start round 2 to keep you busy!" The old man snickered.

"Oh shit."

"To all DH users! Get ready! More of them are coming! Remember to try to avoid contact with them! Use ranged attacks and fire to beat them! Gotcha?" Akatsuki radioed.

"Roger!"

"Why isn't my amulet working?" Cygnus Wing complained.

"Because it's mere superstition." Cygnus calmly argued back.

"I won't let you rascals run loose in our town!" Ox Fire exclaimed.

"Don't get too confident, either!" Harp Note warned.

"Alright! Now I can continue kicking and punching!" Goat Kung-Fu exclaimed.

"Hum! More cowards come to try to bury me? I shall make them feel the wrath of the king!" Crown Thunder muttered.

"It would seem some have shown up on the proximities of Planet FM, too, so we need to go back and assist the defenders." Cepheus told the group after he listened to a transmission.

"Alright. Good luck." Acid Ace nodded in understanding.

"Thank you. Let us go, Sages."

The Sages silently flew along with Cepheus into the "Noise Wave" which closed: tens of copies of the defenders began to spawn out of nowhere and the defenders began to fight them back.

"Au~h! My blood's boiling! Bring it on, twerps!"

"There we go again." Wolf sighed.

"Eat this, you scum! Thunder of royal wrath!"

"You won't get any closer to the studios! Shock Note!"

"Rock Man – sama~! Where's MY Rock Man – sama~?"

"He's gone to Austria to fight Hyde and Shinobi, _iinchou_! Buro~! Stay at home, it's safer!" Ox Fire replied.

"Oh yes! My Rock Man – sama will bring a lesson to those plebeians who dare touch the princess that I am!"

"Not again." Ox Fire grumbled.

"LUNA~!" Ms. Shirogane scolded.

"YIKES!"

"Oh boy." Jack Corvus rolled his eyes.

"I'm worried about that girl's future. I'm afraid she's been spoiled too much. Well… Not like I'm the best of positions to lecture anyone about believing themselves to be royalty." Queen Virgo muttered with a sigh of defeat.

"Guess that." Acid Ace calmly replied.

"Huff. Girls." Ox Fire muttered.

"The problem with Luna – chan is that she's gotten obsessed with _clichés_ over the last few years. Instead of focusing on her studies and future responsibilities she fills her head with romance and clings into the fantasy figure of a prince that'll protect her." Harp Note sighed.

"I do admit that I did think like here when I was younger but I lost all of that afterwards." Queen Virgo admitted.

"I think parents don't have a bad intention when they tell us these tales but there's a point in which they should start to tell us that real life isn't like in those tales." Daigo sighed.

"I agree. If I've gotten this far is because I've always been realistic and haven't bothered to worry about fulfilling _clichés_."

"Exactly, ma'am. That's what I wanted to get at."

"Hmpf. All that "sweetness" and "fantasy" which you use to try to shield children from reality end up conditioning them and making them act in an irrational manner. Your own words backfire at you." The old man drily scoffed, unimpressed.

"What would you know, anyway?" The Chief challenged.

"I don't know. But it feels so irrational that it irritates me."

"Then leave and go broom the Sahara!" Acid Ace fumed.

"Hmpf. Whatever."

He vanished and the group sighed in relief as they got rid of his presence: they focused on attacking the copies: the Wave Roads went on regenerating instantly whenever any segments were deleted by the "black paint" that the copies were spreading around.

"I think I've found the source of all these… Invisible "Noise Wave" entrances… These things were being spawned inside of nearby "Noise Waves" and they get sent outside. I've sent Omega to evaluate things and see what he can do."

"I'm about to reach Vienna, Boss." Rock Man reported.

"Good. See if the guy has anything new up his sleeves that the old man might've given him. If not, you can shoot the DH canceller at once and allow you guys to detain them. Make sure to immobilize Shinobi at once or he could start killing with his bare hands." Vadous instructed.

"Agreed. We'll do that." Burai agreed.

"What's the exact situation?"

"Hyde has deployed an energy shield around the Parliament building impeding the entrance and exit of anything or anyone. Shinobi is patrolling the outsides and it'd seem that Hyde is inside."

"I've tried checking the national TV channel and it's emitting in live from inside the Parliament how Hyde is claiming to be a descendant from the last Austro-German Empire king and he's fit to make Austria great again."

"Typical of Hyde. Let's hope he stays engrossed in that a bit more."

"Are you finishing deploying units around the Parliament?"

"Yeah. According to the Austria Branch, they've sealed off a 1 kilometer radius from the building and placed security measures in place. Just to be sure they haven't come closer than 25 meters to the building. One of the first things you should do is find the generator of the shield and disable it so that they can evacuate the people inside." Ryuusuke reported to them as he checked some messages on his Hunter-VG.

"Did you make sure that King's cell is safe?"

"Of course. We're keeping a close watch."

"Good. Check it with your own eyes, too, just in case the security footage I manipulated to give us fake footage."

"Roger that."

"Any other status update?"

"He's now demanding that "Haidus" come out and face him in a fencing duel like in _Hamlet_ to decide which of them is fit to restoring Austria to its past glory."

"He still believes in that bluff, huh? Good."

"This is Omega. I wiped out a device generating the copies here so the copies in Kodama Town should stop spawning by now. I'm going to check the surroundings in case there are more of them."

"Good job. What about Tabuu, though?"

"He's inspecting the Black Hole Server to make sure the culprit isn't there. It'd seem there could be another of these devices there as well."

"Alright. Yet… I've got a bad feeling about this." Queen Virgo muttered.

"You're not the only one. The old man knows that Hyde and Shinobi are no match for Subaru. Is he trying to split our forces to reduce our response capability in case he brings out something?" Acid Ace wondered.

"I'm afraid we'll soon figure that out. Sheesh."

Acid Ace merely nodded in agreement and continued battling.

 _What's this uneasiness I'm feeling…? Something's coming…? What is it…?_


	14. Chapter 14: Otherworldly

**Chapter 14: Otherworldly**

23:43 PM (Austria Time), Saturday March the 19th…

"… Huff. Hoshikawa is taking his time to come…!"

" _Chiiii_!"

"Not yet, you idiot! Hyde – sama said that he first needed end his speech…! I fail to see what he gains from it, though…"

"Nothing, man. It's just a desperate attempt to make himself feel great and supreme. Like always, man."

"I knew it. Sheesh."

"That Hyde… Saying he'd beat the old man when he found him and then he goes and gets lured by the old man's suggestions…"

"And I'm sure that that "Haidus" is a lie made up by those guys to make Hyde – sama get obsessed over it!"

"Sure thing, man."

"Here I am, Hyde and Shinobi! Release the parliament members!"

"Huh! So you came! Fool! To you grave!"

"I wouldn't be so sure about that."

Assassin Shinobi was patrolling the surroundings of the Austrian Parliament in Vienna as he talked with Phantom: he could see fences set up by the Satella Police and several SWAT units ready close to the main stairs leading up to the building: he ignored them and grumbled but then Rock Man landed there from a higher Wave Road: Assassin Shinobi got in the mood and drew his blade while Rock Man was calm and collected.

"Master! Rock Man's come!"

"What? Already? In the middle of my glorious speech?"

"But you said that if he didn't come in 45 minutes' time you'd cut off someone's neck, no?"

"Sheesh! Ahem, ahem! Well, my fellow countrymen! Get ready to see the start of a new and glorious Austro – Hungarian Empire lead by Hyde the 1st, the man who will make Europe shake down to its foundations!"

There was a noise and an opening formed in the shield surrounding the building: Phantom Black rushed out as Rock Man saw a quasi-invisible figure dropping in: he paid no heed as Phantom Black readied his cane and took up a fencing pose.

" _En garde,_ Laertes' descendant!"

"How funny!" Lartes grumbled over the radio.

"I'm at my home nation! The soul of Austria is my ally! The citizens are my allies!" He laughed.

"I wonder about that. You must seem like a radical right-winged politician that says things "glory", "jobs" and such but in the end you don't have any plan and you say that to lure in people with poor criteria or people who want a strong-looking type who'll get them out of their troubles. It's called "populism"." Lartes lectured.

"P-populism? WRONG! I'm the new Emperor! I'm not a politician!"

"Emperors and kings are also politicians, you fool." A familiar voice scoffed from close by.

"SOLO~!"

"Yeah. Me."

Burai was standing close by and looked unimpressed: the energy field surrounding the building was gone and the SWAT were evacuating the hostages from the back of the building already.

"Damn! You got in when I was getting out and you disabled the field, didn't you?" Phantom Black hissed.

"Of course. We knew you'd play dirty to begin with. You surely planned to use the hostages to impede Rock Man from fighting you and putting up a show in which the "hero" sacrifices himself for the sake of the hostages… Too predictable." He dully exposed.

"Get me his HEAD!" He ordered to Assassin Shinobi.

"Your will!"

"Fine. You Mu defective. Time to settle the score."

"As for you, Hoshikawa! The soul of Austria will CRUSH YOU!"

"Do I look impressed to begin with, Hyde?"

"Nya~h!"

"So? Are you going to move or what?" Rock Man grumbled.

"Phantom Claw!"

"Hyper Cannon!"

"Guh! Impossible!"

"Not impossible at all. You're the same as always. There's no "soul of Austria" helping you out. It's all self-suggestion to make you believe you're stronger but you're the same coward as always."

"I will be crowned Emperor!"

"Oh no. You'll be arrested as a terrorist."

"TERRORIST? ME? I'M ROYALTY!"

"I'm sure you aren't. You're just trying to believe you're more important than you are. Like always. Dr. Orihime saw through you when you failed to stop me and Burai at the entrance of the Mu Continent. That you were a useless whelp." Lartes fumed.

"Speak for yourself! Dr. Frankenstein! I know what you did to Shinobi time ago! The old man told me and Shinobi admitted to it!"

"Shinobi might be a killer but a life is a life. Laws will judge, not us. We did what we thought was the best for that other man. I know that "it" isn't exactly moral, but… The world isn't just black and white. There are a lot of grey areas, too."

"Speaking of the old man… I don't see him around."

"Bah. He's prone to show up sooner or later. Let's settle the score already and focus on the old man, the only remaining headache. Bring out the secret weapons, you two." Lartes instructed.

"Fine. I'm tired of playing tag with this rascal."

"What secret weapons? Rubbish! Nothing can defeat the soul of Austria!"

"Of course it can. Because it's self-suggestion."

"Grrr!"

"Hmpf. Well, the time's come. You buffoons' age has come to an end. Now… The age of fear and terror begins!" A voice rang out.

"That's not the old man's voice… The real culprit? Yet that voice rings a bell somewhere." Rock Man frowned.

The air rumbled and everyone struggled to keep their balance: a large mechanical hand made of a purple material and having four thin fingers suddenly emerged from a gigantic "portal" that was growing in size: it gripped Phantom Black and Assassin Shinobi (since he'd jumped to his master's side to challenge Rock Man) and lifted them into the air: another portal formed and a black beam was fired at the two of them: they roared as their transformations were cancelled.

"T-that hand… It can't be… Right?" Rock Man gasped.

"By all the…" Burai cursed.

"T-that's…!" Lartes gasped as well.

"Hmpf. You can have these buffoons! I have no need for them anymore. The age of buffoons has come to an end!"

The hand retreated inside of the "portal" and another other formed in mid-air about 30cm over the ground: both Hyde and Shinobi along with their Wizards were dropped into the ground in the midst of the SWAT area: several of them quickly immobilized both criminals and had them climb into one of their armored vans: another team captured the Wizards into transparent energy cases and loaded them into another van.

"Alright. Let's heat up the ambience. This BGM will do… Ultra Beast Battle, from Sun & Moon…" The voice sneered.

A BGM rang out as the "portal" expanded higher in the air and a gigantic mole emerged from the "portal": it soon totally emerged and loomed over them: all color left their faces.

A gigantic robot easily over 6 or 7 meters tall emerged and hovered inches above the Parliament's roof.

Its main body was humanoid in shape and made of some purplish material: the head a central "eye" that emitted a thin menacing reddish glow as it was underneath what seemed to be the upper head.

A large mass of a greenish/grayish material and which seemed to be further pieces of it was spread starting over the shoulders and towards the rear: two gigantic hands with six fingers each could be made out of the several pieces there.

"The "Wiita" robot? Impossible! It's being stored at WAXA and it's totally broken from the inside!" Rock Man gasped.

"And that means that…" Burai scowled.

The front plate of the chest cavity suddenly split in two and swung outwards: the pilot became visible and it turned out to be someone they all knew: Grave Joker.

"You again!" Lartes hissed.

"Yes, me! It's been a while." He snickered.

"B-but you got deleted a month ago in front of our eyes!" Rock Man argued.

"Oh, sure. My body was. But my mind lurked inside of the "Wiita" camouflaged as the OS… Not even Dr. Yoiri, my creator, was able to detect me! And I easily snuck out to then rebuild my body. It was a calculated gamble. And I won it." He admitted with a shrug.

"Oh by all the…" Burai hissed.

"I needed time to repair this marvel from the inside. Your idea of storing it inside of an annex where no – one would come in and it'd be remotely monitored came in handy. You thought that taking out the fuel cells would help you but I placed new ones. All these games were a distraction to make you forget about the "Wiita". To buy time to finish repairing it. It was so easy to set up a "bubble" in the surveillance system of the annex to make it look like all was alright… You expected this thing to sit there and build up dust. So no – one bothered to spend the whole time checking at the live feed. Even if they did they wouldn't have seen anything out of place since all repairs were made from the inside."

"Damn it. So that was what Queen Tia felt!"

"Another reason I had those two buffoons start up the show here is because I needed insurance that Vadous couldn't pull the same trick twice on me. Not like he'll dare damage this Parliament, right?" He formed an evil snicker.

"Grrrr!" Lartes growled.

"Unlike that Hyde fool, I don't need human hostages. I needed an immovable hostage. In short: a building. And I needed spectators as well. All of the world's media is looking at us ever since I rang them up to say that the Earth's hero, Rock Man, was fighting an alien invasion. Look around you if you don't believe me!"

Rock Man and Burai looked around and found tens of journalists aiming their cameras at them: several aerial cameras were also flying in circles while keeping a security distance from the Parliament: some curious had come out into their houses' balconies and were recording or live-streaming the happenings through their Hunter-VGs.

"Damn it. We can't act from this side, then." Lartes grumbled.

"Feeling the despair already? It's just like I predicted. The reason I picked that form of an old man and a childish alias is because that would make you think the culprit was someone else and not someone like me. In short, I degraded myself to avoid you recognizing me from character traits. I guess that I am the one who really understands the "soul of Shakespeare" in the end." He rubbed his chin with the right hand.

"Rock Man. Use "it"…" Burai whispered.

"Yeah. Seems like the best choice…"

"Ah. So it's finally starting. Good, good. Put up a good show for the cameras, Mr. Hero. The world's expecting a lot from you, in case you'd forgotten." Grave Joker taunted.

"Kuh…! Hit my weak point…! If there's one thing I hate is when they expect too much of me…!" Rock Man muttered.

"Yeah. I can see the why." Burai agreed.

The hatches quickly shut and an energy field formed over the surface of the "Wiita" main body: it suddenly materialized Grave Joker's "Destroy Missiles" and they began to fly towards the two of them: they jumped asides as the missiles impacted the Wave Roads and released "black paint" that deleted them.

"Excuse me! Satella Police officers! We need someone to adjust the Wave Stations and repair the Wave Roads as we repel this thing!" Rock Man called out to them.

" _What?_ " Someone asked back in English.

"Oh crap. I forgot I'm not in Japan. What do I do?"

"Omega will be the interpreter. He's just returned from dealing with some of those copies in Japan. Omega! Translate the message to German and send it to the Satella Police on the scene!"

"Roger!"

Omega dropped atop one of the vans and displayed a holographic ID card which had the Satella Police logo on it: he then jumped down and explained to the officers what to do: some nodded in understanding and rushed away.

"They got the message. Now, problem is… How do we deal with that? I'm sure the field's been strengthened ever since last time." Omega muttered as he looked upwards.

"Excellent deduction, Holmes! I'll praise you yet."

"Oh shut up."

"Let's try dropping some heavy and solid atop it…" Rock Man whispered over the radio.

"Fine. Let's warp a boulder and toss it from above." Burai agreed.

Omega silently warped elsewhere while the two of them tried to lure the "Wiita" away but it didn't bother to move from its position: both grumbled and kept on dodging the missiles.

"You might bring as many reinforcements as you want but I'm afraid they won't help you out." Grave Joker taunted.

Two grayish beams shot from the palm of each of the six-fingered hands and headed for the two of them: they used Stone Cubes to block them as the beams deleted the Stone Cubes on contact: a "portal" formed over the "Wiita" and a large boulder about 70cm tall fell from above: it impacted the energy field and made it frizzle as energy ripples spread from the point of impact: peaks of excess energy jumped off from different points across the field as it tried to vent off the excess energy: the field suddenly vanished.

"Sheesh. The generator has entered emergency cooldown mode and it'll take 3 minutes to cooldown." The enemy grumbled.

"Chance…!"

"Go!"

Burai formed a "Spiriting away" eyeball device and created a "black hole": Rock Man dived inside and ended up in the mysterious alternate dimension those holes led to: he spotted a white circle of light on ahead so he rushed there and crossed it to emerge inside of the "cockpit" of the "Wiita" and behind Grave Joker: the walls, floor and ceiling displayed a 360º peripheral view of the surroundings and Grave Joker was using two energy chains that coiled around his wrists to order the movements to the robot.

 _Chance! I'll use Tabuu's Battle Card to suck off his energy and immobilize him!_

"Or so you thought?"

"Huh? Ah!"

THUD! PTAF!

"Ougah!"

"I predicted this as well. And I'll be having this! It's exactly like I'd calculated. Heh, heh, heh."

"Ow… Ah!"

Grave Joker suddenly appeared behind Rock Man: he didn't have time to react as he kicked him forward with the right foot: he bounced off the frontal hatches and into the ground: he dropped a Battle Card with Tabuu's image on it and Grave Joker picked it up: it turned out the one piloting the robot was a hologram which vanished.

"Ever heard of autopilots?" He snickered.

"Ow…! An autopilot…! Damn! Didn't think of that…!"

Grave Joker absorbed the data of the Battle Card before striding forward and landing his right foot over Rock Man's back: he groaned and tried to crawl away but Grave Joker applied further pressure.

"Hmpf! I'm transmitting this live to everyone out there… They're seeing how disappointing their "hero" is! In live!" He snickered.

"Y-you coward…!" Rock Man groaned.

"Hmpf. I'm a coward. And what if? I told you years ago on Shiisa Castle! Didn't I? Survival of the strongest! That's the rule of this world! You were too used to incompetent fools. But I'm another tale! I'll engrave that lesson into you."

"You bastard! Fight me!"

"Hmpf! So you came, too. Just like I predicted."

Burai also got inside of the cockpit and had drawn his Laplace Blade: Grave Joker grinned stopped stomping Rock Man to grip his neck with the right hand and lift him effortlessly: he turned him around to have him face Burai and Burai scowled.

"You call yourself the lonely warrior. Can you cut through this weak man and defeat me? Or maybe that was but rubbish you said just like those buffoons." He challenged.

"I've got other means!"

"Oh? Then prove that to me."

Burai tossed the Laplace Blade and loaded up energy on his left fist: he rushed forward and plunged through and past Rock Man stopping inches from Grave Joker's body: he formed his old blade and it pierced through the body armor: Grave Joker gasped and let go of Rock Man so Burai cancelled the blade and pulled Rock Man towards him: he closed his right arm around him as he took out the left one from inside of him: Laplace materialized and flew towards Grave Joker's neck: he brought up his right arm and caught it: Burai pulled Rock Man outside the cockpit and out into the SWAT Area: he deposited him on the floor.

"Are you alright?"

"Koff, koff… Y-yeah… Somewhat… I owe you one… But I screwed it up there… He stole the Tabuu card from me!"

"But it's set up so that only you can use it, no?"

"Huh? Ah! Now that you mention it…"

There was some muttering close by and Burai spotted Omega trying to explain something in German to some of the officers.

"Omega's trying to tell them not to fall for Joker's psychological warfare tactics but he's not having it easy. People and their "expectations"! Things would be easier sans them." Lartes grumbled.

"Truly!" Burai fumed.

"Heh, heh, heh. You're all puppets who dance to the tune of my flute. Oho. It'd seem _kyoudai_ 's come. So, Snake? Coming to do some dirty work in the name of your nation?"

"Hmpf! You're not remotely funny, Joker!"

Burai looked at the "Wiita": some holographic screens had deployed around it showing what was going on inside of the cockpit: Acid Ace had intruded and Grave Joker greeted him with some sarcasm of his own.

"Another "hero" who's come to die in name of "justice", you see."

"Stop talking to the public. Get ready!"

"Heh, heh, heh. Fine. Destroy Missiles!"

"Wide Wave! Giza Wheel! Stealth Laser! Daba Flame!"

"Guh…! I still feel the pain…!" Rock Man groaned.

"Don't overdo yourself. Take it easy." Burai instructed.

"Calm down. The copies are gone. It's obvious that he doesn't need them anymore." Lartes reported.

"Huff. These guys ARE stubborn!" Omega grumbled in Japanese.

" _Was hast du gesagt_?" An officer asked in German.

" _Du bist stur_!" Omega replied.

" _Was_?" The officer was surprised.

Omega began to argue with him again while Burai rolled his eyes, exasperated: he spotted how Acid Ace and Grave Joker were still fighting inside of the cockpit and none seemed to have the upper hand over the other as they circled inside of the limited space.

"He's toying with you, Akatsuki." Burai warned.

"Thanks for the warning. I was already aware of it."

"… _Da hast du recht_." The officer sighed.

" _Jetzt erkennen Sie_?" Omega rolled his eyes.

"It'd seem this guy is realizing that Omega's got a point. His buddies also agree. About time!" Lartes sighed.

" _Sind Sie der Held_?" A new voice asked.

" _Herr Premierminister_!"

The officers saluted as a man who they identified as the Prime Minister walked forward escorted by bodyguards and other officers: Burai helped Rock Man stand up.

"He's asking if you're the hero." Omega translated for them.

"Well… Depends on what you consider a "hero"…" Rock Man muttered back with a hint of annoyance.

"Eh… _Das ist richtig_."

The Prime Minister then began to say something for a while and Omega seemed to wait for him to finish speaking.

"Well. He says that he admits that you must be under a lot of pressure from those "expectations" but that he understands that no – one's perfect and that you're doing what you can."

"Ah… Thank you, sir. It's just that… I hate it when people expect too much out of me. I just do what I can, sir. I'm not invincible. I never called myself a "hero", sir. "Heroes" never call themselves like that. It's a title that others impose into those persons, sir."

Omega translated that for the PM and he nodded in understanding as he seemed to agree with Rock Man's points: Burai was keeping an eye out as Acid Ace and Grave Joker punched and kicked each other: a big, purple "portal" suddenly formed behind the "Wiita" and sucked it inside: the screens vanished along with it as well.

"There. Pulled it to the same place we fought it last month. There we can go all out and I'll pull the same trick to put an end to this. But this time around I'm going to grab whatever remains of this stupid robot and toss it into a real black hole!" Vadous told them over the radio.

"It's useless, Vadous!" Grave Joker intervened.

"Oh, yeah? I wonder about that! It's already on its way there!"

"Or so your GUI tells you." Grave Joker calmly pointed out.

"… Don't tell me that…"

"Huh, Vadous? Nothing's coming down." Acid Ace pointed out.

"B-but… There was the slight power compensation and the vibration of the devices! It should've fired!"

"Ah! There it comes, but… It's way off course! It'll hit kilometers away!"

"Damn! So you didn't disable the beam but altered the GUI so that the actual lock on coordinates would be off-mark!"

"I'm subtle. You're too used to _amateurs_ like Virus Daemon and the like. That's the real reason I intruded into your HQ and also sent King there. To be able to insert this slight modification. You've lost your trump card, Vadous! Feeling the despair? You betrayed everyone's "expectations" as well! You're not better than this failed "hero"!"

"That doesn't work on me, ugly. I never gave crap for that. I do what I can: that's been my policy!"

"Of course, Solid Snake."

"I'm not Solid Snake! That woman mocked me by calling me that but I'm not him! Damn it!" Vadous growled.

"Who's Solid Snake?" Rock Man wondered.

"A fictional character… I think you can deduce the rest." Omega whispered to him and Burai.

"Ah. I see." Burai calmly realized.

" _Was?_ " The PM looked perplexed.

"Ah! Eh… Ahem, ahem…"

Omega told him in German and he nodded in understanding: the sounds of a scuffle kept on ringing out through Rock Man's and Burai's radios: Grave Joker was cackling and Acid Ace grumbling.

"The guy's got us! I came out to avoid being hit by the beam when it rained down but I can't get back in."

"Hmmm… Relying on this forever might make me look like I can't do anything by myself… Fine. I'll bury you with my own hands, Snake! And then I'll prove that I have the superior genes! You have the receding genes, after all! Solid _Ivory_!"

"He's coming out? But let's not lower the guard. It could be a pretense for all we know."

Omega formed a holographic screen showing them how Acid Ace was battling Grave Joker over some Wave Roads crossing over a set of ruins somewhere: the robot was left standing still on the ground some meters deeper in: Grave Joker looked calm and Acid Ace was concentrated in dodging or countering him.

"Chance…!"

Vadous opened the "portal" again and stole the "Wiita": Grave Joker gasped and formed a grimace.

"Damn. You improved the reloading time!"

"Sure did! I knew it'd come in handy! Say bye to your trump card, Joker! I'm tossing it into a real black hole!"

"After all the time I spent repairing it…! Damn you, Vadous! Once I finish settling the score here I'm coming for you! I won't fail like that miserable King… I was getting annoyed of the man so I set up that show to humiliate him before letting you catch him… I'm way smarter than that fool who didn't realize he was being used!" He hissed.

"Sure, sure."

"Huff. This pain is finally subsiding… I think that the guy did something that kept on triggering pain reactions in my nervous system to keep me out of the fight…" Rock Man rubbed his chest.

"Surely." Burai wasn't too surprised.

Omega was explaining the situation to the PM in the meanwhile who distractedly nodded in understanding as he witnessed the exchange between the two combatants.

"I said that the portals are a new prototype technology WAXA is working with but it's still experimental…" Omega told the other two.

"Alright. WAXA can always refuse to divulge information because of the fear of this tech being abused by other parties."

"Hyde attempted to do it when another scientist worked on this tech."

"Yeah. The "Shinaides Affair"…"

"Hah! Is this all you've got on you, Akatsuki?"

"Of course not. I was just getting warmed up."

"Warmed up? Hum. I see, I see. So be it!"

"Finalize!"

"Come!"

Acid Ace finalized and shot the Red Gaia Eraser at Grave Joker who also countered with the same attack: both attacks met and merged to create a gigantic explosion which whitened the screens: the whiteness slowly began to fade: both Acid Ace and Grave Joker were separated by some meters and facing away from each other as if they'd just dashed for each other and clashed: Acid Ace was lacking a good chunk of his frontal chest armor which looked like it'd been pulled out by a claw: he had a red-colored modified Hyper Cannon on his right forearm: Grave Joker, on the other hand, held the missing chunk of armor on his right hand which had become a claw, but had a series of small rectangular holes that had opened on his body's front and below: he looked slightly satisfied nevertheless.

"Hmpf… So you used it… The same weapon as I… A cannon that can project the same type of beam attacks I can… To pierce through my body and damage my core… Yet I didn't go down just like that… I forced you to bring out your best… And I was inches away from finishing you off, too… Not bad… Now I've got nothing left to do… But my name will remain in history nevertheless… Heh, heh, heh… Farewell, Acid and Akatsuki!"

He chuckled as his energy core become unstable and the energy contained imploded before releasing in the form of an expanding sphere of energy that began to become bigger and bigger until it consumed the whole of Grave Joker: Acid Ace collapsed on his knees and clutched the wound with his left hand, panting.

"Kuh…! That was a close one… But we won, nevertheless… It's finally… over… Guess that was like a hero? Heh, heh, heh…!"


	15. Chapter 15: And end to all

**Chapter 15: And end to all**

08:54 AM (Japan Time), Monday March the 21st…

"… But that was impressive, nevertheless, Acid – chan and Shidou – chan! To think you'd used that child's weapon against him…! But you were fortunate! Another little bit and he'd managed to inflict damage critical enough to cancel your transformation!"

"Yeah… I felt like a lot of my strength was siphoned out of me at once… Like I was going to collapse at any second now…"

"Ma'am. I would prefer if we stopped with the nicknames."

"Why, my dear? It feels cute, doesn't it?"

"… Yes, ma'am…"

"You did an outstanding job, Akatsuki – kun. We're all proud of you. Of course, Hoshikawa – kun also did a good job nevertheless."

"Yeah… I need some more gym, though!"

"You and the gym, Akatsuki… You never change!"

"Guess that, Tia!"

Akatsuki was talking with Dr. Yoiri, the Chief, Acid and Queen Tia as Acid was being inspected by Dr. Yoiri: Akatsuki looked in high spirits and Queen Tia directed a grin at him.

"Anyways. I had a talk with Vadous and Cepheus and the AM Sages and we agree that the Black Hole Server should be destroyed. WAXA's Main Computer is more than capable of recreating the Meteor Server to allow "Finalize", as proven in several experiments."

"Yes. That place is filled with data that could be used against us by someone with enough knowledge." Dr. Yoiri agreed.

"Regarding the behemoth… We handed it over to the Navy. They will study it and then dismantle it to reprocess its materials for other purposes… So there's no risk of anyone using it against us."

"Sure. Let's slowly get rid of stuff that could potentially become a threat in the near future." Queen Tia agreed as well.

"You are being wiser than usual, Shidou."

"Wiser than usual? Is that a sample of your sarcasm, Acid?"

"Well, I do not know." He shrugged.

"Oh man."

"Your daily sarcasms shoots back at you, Akatsuki." Queen Tia grinned.

"Yeah, so it'd seem! Ironies of life, huh?"

"It'd seem the morale is high." The Chief walked in along with Daigo and Amachi.

"Of course, sir."

"By the way, did Vadous really toss the robot into a real black hole as he said he would do?" Daigo asked.

"Yeah. He did. That robot was dangerous. Maybe Joker had already hid another copy of his consciousness program inside and before we knew it the guy would revive and use it again to overwhelm us."

"I see."

"Well, at least we gained a lot of insight on new types of materials and circuitry and weapons so it could come in handy in the future. If used with prudence, that is."

"Of course. Speaking of which, what about the OOPArts?" Amachi asked to them.

"Vadous entrusted those to Solo and he'll talk with his elder to decide what they do with those. Maybe they will hide them in secret locations or maybe they will destroy them to avoid being abused again."

"By the way, I'm surprised Vadous let those two out of the server."

"But he applied some insurances on them."

"Ah. I see. Now it makes sense."

"Insurances?" Dr. Yoiri asked.

"He recreated Omega's system on them. When things are serious they will get serious. When there's no trouble they will prank but if they go over the board the serious switch will kick in and they will be placed in serious mode for several hours so that they behave. We hope that the VR simulations will help content War Rock's thirst for brawls. As for Moon Disaster, we told him to go compete in a tournament that'll be held in Planet FM… That should keep him busy for some days." Akatsuki explained to the group.

"Fine. If there's a failsafe to ensure they don't go into a prank rampage then things will be easier for us."

"The other DH users keep on with their daily stuff. They're always ready to be called if we need their firepower. The only problems are Ogami – san and Utagai – san…"

"Huff. Yeah. Ogami – san gets wild when there's full moon and Utagai – kun is still going on with his superstitions but he's more or less coming to terms with them. It would seem his grandmother was the superstitious type and she passed that into Utagai – kun." Amachi sighed.

"I had the feeling that had to be the reason for his behavior. Someone's influence…" Daigo admitted.

"Now we know. At least Cygnus has helped boost his courage a bit every then and then."

"Wasn't there a brand of tea named "Courageous Hero"?"

"No, ma'am. Courageous hero is a title or an adjective but I find no references to a tea brand named like that." Acid replied.

"Oh, is that so? Thank you, Acid – chan."

"Ma'am. Could we please skip the nicknames?"

"But it sounds cuter like that. Like you were a puppy."

"… Yes, ma'am… Acknowledged, ma'am…" Acid muttered with what sounded like a sigh of defeat.

"Oh well. Hyde and Shinobi will be sent to different prisons each and their Wizards have been placed under heavy security in different locations as well. Just to be safe, they will be shut them down and stored in Hunter-VGs in an environment designed to resist physical attacks and attempts by Denpa bodies to warp inside. Theirs and King's trials are yet pending. Kurayami and Kanaya got trialed separately because they still believe the one betrayed the other. They're Denpa bodies but once you remove all programs from them and abilities they can be turned as powerless as normal humans. They will be handled like normal humans as well in legislative terms too." Akatsuki

"I see. I guess that their hatred will fuel them to never feel sorrow or guilt for what they did but at least they'll get to know the consequences of their actions and that they brought that into themselves." The Chief sighed.

"Yeah. Oh well. By the way, Tia… How about a dinner at that Indian restaurant tonight?"

"Oh my. Are you intending to invite me to a date?"

"Of course."

"I'll think about it. Sneaky guy." She grinned.

"Sneaky, huh? Guess that."

"And what would the point of that be?" Acid wondered.

"Who knows?" Akatsuki grinned.

"You humans and your complicated emotions…"

"I hope you're treating, Akatsuki. Else I'm quits." She warned him with a grin.

"O-of course I'm treating! I'm not that sneaky of a guy."

"That reminds me of my high school times, even!" Daigo laughed.

"Sure does."

"When the "Streak of Acid" was popular?"

"Ma'am. It's called "Streak of Luck". And it's a term used when one has had a lot of luck in a row." Acid corrected.

"Oh my. Thank you, Acid – chan. Maintenance is over. Everything on your body and programs is correct."

"Thank you, ma'am."

"By the way, Akatsuki… I hope it's not a place where one need to go in a dress… I'm not too fond of them." Queen Tia warned.

"Of course not. It's a common Indian restaurant."

"Ah. For a moment I thought you were trying to impress me with some gallant date and then bring out the proposal ring."

"T-that's… W-well… We're both of age, yeah, but… I think it's a bit too early… Our relationship is still recent… I think that we need to wait some time… Another year or so… No?" He got nervous.

"I'm kidding. But I agree. It's still early. Let's wait. Not like there's any need to rush… And now that things have settled down I can go help in the rebuilding of my nation… Who knows? Maybe one day you'll King Akatsuki, even." She teased.

"Somehow… That doesn't sound like it'll fit with my persona."

"Tee, heh, heh. Oh well. Meet you at the gym in a while. Bye!"

Queen Tia walked away while Akatsuki blushed and scratched his head: Daigo patted his back while Amachi and the Chief looked amused: Dr. Yoiri looked rather surprised: Acid was silent.

"Oh well! I better ring the restaurant up and book a table ASAP!"

"I still fail to see the point, Shidou. But I guess it does not matter that much. Both of you seem satisfied, anyway."

"Of course, man! Let's get on the move! Yahoo!"

15:55 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Ah. So you were here, you two."

"Sir Omega! What are our orders?"

"There are none. Just sit down and continue the chess game."

"Roger, sir."

"Thank you, sir."

"We can take it easy. After all, there's only one subject to worry about in the other "front" but our business partners can handle that."

"Of course, sir."

"We can take it easy! Here, Blood! How's this move like?"

"Hum. I'm getting in a tight spot."

Blood Shadow and Sigma were playing chess inside of a room inside of a room: Omega stepped in and they stood up to salute but he told them to resume the game: he looked rather satisfied while Sigma grinned as his next move placed Blood Shadow in a tight spot.

"Ah! Here you are, guys." Storm appeared in the threshold.

"We were looking for you. We're going to take part in a competition at Spica Mall. Interested?" Miles invited.

"Sorry, but no. Today we want to relax." Blood Shadow replied.

"And do something relaxing." Sigma added.

"OK. What about you, Omega?"

"Got stuff to discuss with Boss, so I'll pass… Go have fun, guys."

"Thanks, man."

"See you later!"

Both Wizards hovered away while talking amongst themselves: Omega looked amused.

"I thought as much but I'm glad to see the morale has recovered. We were all too tense. Now we can get rid of the tension for a while."

"Obviously, sir. How about this move, Sigma?"

"Geh! Now I'm the one who's a tight spot, man!"

"Heh, heh. Enjoy, guys. And I hope you don't start a fight because one of you lost and tell the other he cheated."

"O-of course not, sir." Sigma quickly replied.

"Acknowledged, sir."

"Good."

Omega left the room and walked down the corridor: he spotted Lartes talking with someone over the Hunter-VG: he looked annoyed and Omega stood nearby to wait for him to finish.

"… Later!"

"What's up, Lartes? Trouble already?"

"Oh no! Just the hospital morons. Now they say that X-Rays are "rays of the unknown" and that we should rely on "instinct"… How the hell did these 3 become medics, anyway?" He growled.

"That for real?" Omega was baffled.

"Do I look like I'm kidding? You don't know all of the nonsense I've heard those 3 idiots say in these 4 years I've been working there." Lartes told him.

"Man. They must have connections and they got there for the salary and the feeling of power."

"Sure thing! There have been anonymous reports by some of the nurses and women medics accusing them of sexual harassment as well and abuse of authority and they were obliged to admit to those by a civilian court but they've got no shame, really."

"Man."

"Oh well! I guess that once we figure out their accomplice they won't feel so confident anymore. Don't let it worry you, Omega. This only involves me and it's no big drama."

"Alright. Good luck there."

"Thanks. We're all going to need it."

Omega nodded in agreement as he walked down another section of the corridor and then opened a door to end up in a room having an elevator shaft climbing diagonally and the elevator platform connecting with the command bridge: he stepped on it and the platform hummed as it climbed upwards and ended up in the command bridge: Vadous and Tabuu were in the midst of some talk.

"Huh? Ah. Omega. Thought it was Lartes."

"I just talked to him. He's trying to deal with those hospital idiots."

"Huff. The guy doesn't have it easy, either."

"Sure thing." Tabuu muttered.

"Anyways, how are things proceeding like?"

"Smoothly. Cepheus found a hidden self-destruct system in the Black Hole Server so he used it to blow it up. It'd seem that whomever created that thing didn't want it to end up in anyone else's hands so they installed that. Guess that Sirius was so sure of himself that he didn't think of setting it up to activate if he were to be defeated." Vadous explained.

"From some data I've been gathering ever since last month it'd seem that thing was actually made by my own makers some decades before I was created. Another example of their arrogance which they transmitted into their proxy. At least I managed to overcome it and get rid of the "God complex" I had on my early times." Tabuu added.

"Yeah. I seem to remember you were very prideful at the beginning, shortly after we met." Omega recalled.

"Maybe that influenced you and _aibou_ here as well."

"Could be." Vadous shrugged.

"Anyway… I'll leave for a couple days to oversee things on my own other "front"… If there was trouble I'd gotten messages already, though, so it'd seem there hasn't been insofar. Knowing who's there then I can't lower the guard." Tabuu announced.

"Yeah. I know. By the way, Akatsuki did retrieve the Battle Card that Joker had stolen from Subaru as well. He was able to crack about 70% of the protections, even."

"Well. I set them up with existing Earthly tech so that Hoshikawa's Hunter-VG would be able to recognize its program so… It's no wonder. He himself was a specialist of encoding, after all."

"I see. Oh well. I'm going to check on things by Kodama Town and Okudama Studios to see if everything's alright. Speaking of which… Did you warn Dragon not to mention that of the "Lord of Time and Space" too often?" Omega recalled.

"Yeah. I simply made it look like I don't like being called titles because I'm no nobility. Dragon understood and said he would watch out for that. But I'm surprised nevertheless that he figured out that we could time-travel despite that one doesn't feel that when aboard this ship… Maybe he spotted something that made him reach the conclusion?" Vadous admitted while bringing the right hand to his chin.

"Maybe he casually spotted that a digital clock somewhere changed the date radically every then and then."

"Could be. But he's so discrete by nature that he's never asked me about it in all these years. He prefers to contemplate the world from a spiritualist point of view, anyway."

"Well. At least the few people who know it on the other "front" have also kept up their word of not to tell others. Even that Virus rascal must've thought it'd made him look like a deranged idiot if he went on boasting about time-travel so he never said anything about that, either."

"Yeah. Or maybe Anaya ordered the guy to keep his mouth shut."

"Meh. Like it matters by now… Right?"

"Of course. Not like any of that concerns me, anyway."

"Just in case I think I should go and check up with the guys there to see that things are running normally. A little check-up never hurts, right? I can always say the same tale." Omega suggested.

"Sure. It wouldn't harm to do so in the upcoming days. I feel like I need some rest and so I think I'll be going to do some trekking at the mountains… Maybe visiting a temple, too… It's been a while since I last was on one… I don't believe in charms and all that stuff but it never hurts to pay your respects to those who do." Vadous got animated.

"Maybe I'll do something like that, too. I'd rather go visit some famed locations there and there… Like Kyoto's _kinkakuji_ or Himeji Castle… Maybe Oosaka Castle too."

"The tourism club?" Omega joked.

"Why not…"

"Or the Japan exploration club." Tabuu chuckled.

"OK. I'm going down and do another check-up on Kir Osh and our two ninjas, Daratsu and Kir – Osh. They've been investigating the Mexico stuff, after all. Maybe they found out the secret to Mexican _tacos_. See you, Japan exploration club President and Vice-President!"

"Oh well. I better get in the move. I need some gym, too." Vadous stood up and stretched.

"We managed to get rid of those dangerous folk so things will be quiet for some time. We can't possibly solve all other problems in the world but at least we could prevent those types from laying ruin to the world."

"I know. We're not all-powerful. At least we've prevented an age of chaos."

 _We did what should be done. The rest is up to Subaru and the others! They will build a new future through their efforts! I believe in you guys!_

18:33 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Hi! Subaru – kun! Am I on time?"

"Sure, Misora – chan and Suzuka – chan."

"We didn't bother to disguise today because we don't care if some reporters spot us. We only came to have a friend meeting, after all!"

"Of course."

"And, besides, we've got a strong ally here!"

"Ah! Queen Tia – _sensei_. Good afternoon, ma'am."

"Good afternoon. Jack… I see you didn't bother to comb your hair today, am I right?"

"Geh! As expected of _nee-chan_ …"

Subaru and his classmates had gathered in the Kodama Town observatory located atop a hill behind the Kodama Elementary building: the Sun had begun to sink below the horizon: Misora and Suzuka accompanied by Queen Tia walked in: she spotted that Jack hadn't combed his hair and he gasped, surprised.

"I don't see much of a difference from other days…" Gonta muttered as he looked at him.

"Maybe it's only some spots?" Kizamaro suggested.

"… Ah! True, true… I thought I'd seen this person somewhere before… You were a teacher at the elementary school for a while, no?" Luna frowned and seemed to recall.

"Correct."

"At least she got it right this time." Mode muttered.

"Huh? You were saying?"

"Nothing."

"Buro~… I spot someone's hiding behind those bushes there!"

"Oh, really?"

"Yikes!"

"You're Hasami – kun! What are you doing there?"

"Buku! He was intending to pretend he was a demon and scare off anyone who came! Buku!"

"A demon? Why not a crab-man hybrid? Mwah, hah, hah!"

"Very funny, Rock."

Hasami, the host of the FM Cancer, came out from hiding behind some nearby bushes and blushed: Cancer explained what he was up to and War Rock frowned before laughing at his lame joke.

"You're a 6th grader and you still behave like you were a 3rd grader. Aren't you ashamed of it?" Queen Tia scolded.

"I'm sorry! It's just that… I felt like it!" He apologized.

"Ah, true. He's two years younger than us, right?" Tsukasa recalled.

"So it'd seem. He's not that tall so he looks younger." Kiboyama admitted.

"Fine. At least you admitted you shouldn't have done that. Now go home: we'd like to have this meeting without interruptions."

"Y-yes, ma'am… See ya!"

"Pororon. Oh well. It was just Cancer's partner."

"Better that than some _paparazzi_ , anyway." Ice shrugged.

"By the way, is Mamorou – san alright? I heard he caught a cold."

"Oh yes. He took a day off just in case but he's gotten better. The morale the studios is high, as always. Save for some pesky actress who comes say they should have the main role in the drama series. They want more publicity and they believe they can behave like they're in charge. But we always send them away. They don't realize the story is about teenagers like us, anyway. An actress on 30s can't emulate a teenager."

"I see. And, apart from that, do you still have ideas for songs?"

"Oh, sure! That I always have. I end up writing 3 or 4 per month as drafts but about only one ends up being "produced"… The others I save them up for future occasions."

"Interesting." Kizamaro adjusted his glasses.

"In what sense?" Pedia wondered.

"I wondered how Misora – chan managed the whole aspect of creating new songs and all. That's all." He shrugged.

"Ah… By the way… I think I should apologize. I had a talk with an adviser I'm consulting as of late… And she made me realize that I've been trying to cling into a fantasy for too long… That if I don't let go of it then I'm only going to sadden myself and disappoint myself the whole time… So… I will do my best to resume being realistic, as I was before…" Luna suddenly admitted with a sigh.

"That's great, _iinchou_." Subaru smiled.

"No – one's perfect, Shirogane. I was like you some years ago but reality forced me to adapt to it. I don't regret abandoning those fantasies. But that may because of my background." Queen Tia told her.

"Is that so, ma'am? I see. Maybe you could give me some advice on that aspect?"

"If I can be of help then I'll be glad to."

"Thank you, ma'am."

"I feel like you're slowly regaining your past self, _nee-chan_ … Your kinder self…" Jack told her.

"Thank you, Jack. Yes. Thanks to you guys… I've begun to realize it's worth it. I'm not a machine. I'm a human, after all. I won't deny that some emotions feel needless, but… They're all part of "being human". Or maybe it should be better to say that they're part of "being alive"…"

"Guess that." War Rock muttered.

"Well! I suggested this meeting to, obviously, celebrate our victory! It's been a long, hard road filled with hardships but we've managed to overcome them nevertheless!" Subaru smiled.

"Of course. Because we believed in each other… And in our "Brother Bands" as well…" Misora smiled as well.

"Sure thing!" Gonta grinned.

"Elemental, my dear Gonta – kun."

"As expected of… Subaru – kun and company!" Luna was about to say something else but she corrected herself in mid-sentence.

"Well, that's another improvement." Mode muttered with some optimism.

"I've also managed to keep on forward thanks to Subaru – kun's faith on me. Despite all the pain I've gone through… I haven't lost faith on him on in the rest of you." Tsukasa told the group.

"We're all pals, aren't we?" Kiboyama patted his back.

"Of course!" Suzuka blinked Misora an eye.

"We support each other!" Misora returned her the blink.

"Mind me joining your party? Looks fun."

"Hey, Solo! And here I thought you'd be training."

"I was. But I decided to come check on things."

Solo walked up to them from the town as Laplace hovered to his right: he looked mildly satisfied while Laplace was silent.

"I'm glad that, over the years, you've changed some of your opinions."

"Yeah. I was doing the stupid mistake of "guilty by association" to begin with. I was rather hot-blooded. But I've learnt that I don't need to despise "Bonds" to be strong. I just need to believe in myself. That's all."

" _Ru… Ga… Da… Ru…_ " Laplace muttered.

"Huh? Oh come on. How many times do I need to tell you to stop believing in what the spam inbox emails say? And why do you want a discount ticket to buy jeans, anyway? Use the CPU, will you?" Solo sighed.

"And there they say I don't learn the lesson." War Rock muttered.

"But at least he doesn't start up a fuss like you and Moon Disaster have done insofar, no?" Subaru reminded him.

"Okay, okay! You're right! My bad!"

"At least you admit that what you did was bad. That's a step forward. If you keep it up then we'll be able to redo our relationship."

"Fine. It's just that I felt bored, man! I wanted action, and, well…"

"Fine, fine. We'll talk about that on the days to come."

"Oh, look! Fireworks! It'd seem someone's decided to shoot some. How fitting!" Luna signaled.

"Excellent! We couldn't ask for a better ambience to savor this victory! But we've got another challenge ahead of us… School! Let's not lower the guard since the upcoming weeks will be filled with work!" Subaru reminded his classmates.

"Of course!" They all replied.

"Who knows? Maybe something exciting is waiting for us too!" Misora suggested.

"Heh. Guess that the same applies to me, too. Maybe I will be recognized as real warrior and end up my apprenticeship." Solo grinned.

"And as for "expectations"… I don't care about them! I just want to be who I am. I will be who I decide to be. I will carve a new future by combining my strength with my friends' strength! Such is my resolve!"

Everyone applauded at Subaru as he looked up to the starry skies as the fireworks boomed there and illuminated the group: he was resolved.

 _As "Shooting Star Rock Man"… I will build a bright future for this world!_

 **THE END**


End file.
